Japan Hits Big Setbacks in Push for Energy

[jpak]

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=37447

Just five months after it was unveiled, Japan's ambitious 25-year plan to sharply increase oil and gas development is hitting snags, suggesting Tokyo may find it even harder than expected to stabilize the nation's future energy supply.

On Monday, Exxon Mobil Corp. said it reached a preliminary agreement to sell natural gas from a giant project off Russia's Sakhalin
Island to China, instead of to Japan as originally planned. This came several weeks after Russia ratcheted up regulatory pressure that could jeopardize another Sakhalin gas project in which the bulk of the planned output of nearly 10 million tons a year -- about a fifth of Japan's current natural-gas imports -- was destined for Japan.

And earlier this month, Iran canceled the right held by Inpex Holdings Inc., Japan's largest oil-development company, to participate in a $2 billion project in the Azadegan oil field. At its peak, the project was expected to meet as much as 6% of Japan's total demand for oil.

The developments are a blow to Japan, which had counted on the deals as a major component of its push to expand its access to energy. The world's second-largest national economy relies nearly entirely on imports for its oil and gas, making it vulnerable to swings in global oil prices or political tensions in energy-producing regions.

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[greenman3610]

1. good.

maybe this will spur them to even greater
creativity in the efficiency area.