After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Western countries led by the United States implemented comprehensive sanctions on Russia, which also included no longer importing Russian oil, natural gas, and other energy. According to Jiemian News, Japan has fallen behind in the process of imposing sanctions on Russia. It has long been unable to withstand the pressure of "oil shortage" and has restarted importing oil from Russia. In addition, Russia has officially notified relevant Japanese companies that a new operator will soon take over the "Sakhalin-2" project.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has lasted for more than five months. During this period, the attitudes of Western countries have also undergone many changes. At the beginning of the conflict, Western countries announced, after repeated discussions, severe sanctions on Russia in the fields of finance, energy, high technology and other fields. U.S. President Biden also said at the time that this would cause a huge blow to Russia's economy and help Ukraine achieve the final victory.
However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to this day, and Russia's economy not only does not fall into collapse, but continues to develop steadily. On the contrary, most Western countries that initially clamored for sanctions against Russia have more or less experienced domestic economic problems such as inflation and rising prices. At present, they have successively lifted some sanctions against Russia.
Prior to this, the EU had relaxed sanctions on Russia for two consecutive days. First, it issued a statement on July 22 to relax its requirements for other countries and allow some countries to import agricultural products and oil from Russia. Then, the EU had a hard demand for Russian titanium resources due to Airbus . After discussions, members unanimously stated that they needed to abandon sanctions on Russian titanium producers.
Due to its very high level of industrial development, Japan has a large demand for crude oil, but its domestic crude oil resources are very limited. Therefore, Japan often imports energy from abroad. Russia is close to Japan and is rich in resources. It is a very good partner for Japan. The two countries have had many cooperations in energy before, and the "Sakhalin-2" project is one of them.
The original operator of the "Sakhalin-2" project, Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., Ltd., was jointly established by a number of companies. Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan also participated in it, which provided great convenience for Japan's import of oil and natural gas. . However, in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Japan chose to follow the United States and impose strict sanctions on Russia. It was eventually included in Russia's unfriendly list, and some cooperation between the two parties was directly interrupted.
There have been rumors for a long time about the formation of a new operator for "Sakhalin-2" and the kicking out of Japanese companies. Previously, Russian President Putin also signed a relevant presidential decree, confirming the authenticity of the incident. According to Japanese media news on the 17th, some Japanese companies, such as , Kyushu Electric Power, , Seibu Gas, etc., have received notices that the "Sakhalin-2" operator has been changed. The current operator of "Sakhalin-2" is "Sakhalin Energy" company, which was formed by Russian domestic companies.
According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Japan has resumed importing crude oil from Russia since July, but the amount has dropped by 65.4% compared with July last year. Obviously, Japan's dependence on Russian energy is stronger than expected and it is almost unable to resist.
After losing "Sakhalin-2", Japan's energy will face greater challenges, and it is not impossible to increase the scale of imports from Russia. In addition, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to this day, no one knows what kind of situation it will lead to. But the current situation is that Russia has never backed down, while Western countries are eager to sanction Russia one by one, only to fail one after another.
