Fumiaki Watari
© AFP/File Yoshikazu TsunoTOKYO (AFP) - At the same time he said he hoped Iran, a major source of oil for Japan, would defer to international calls to halt sensitive nuclear work or face possible sanctions.
"We deliver one million barrels per day and about 13 percent of it comes from Iran. We can procure this amount of 130,000 barrel in the spot market," Watari told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
Japan in 2004 signed a two billion-dollar contract to develop Azadegan, the Islamic republic's largest onshore oil field, which Watari described as a "very important project for Japan."
Japan, the world's second largest economy, is almost entirely dependent on the Middle East for its oil and imports about 15 percent of its total oil consumption from Iran.
Even so a senior Japanese trade official said last week that Japan has built enough oil reserves to handle a possible oil crisis if sanctions are imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
"Unlike in the past two oil crises, now we have enough oil reserves. I believe we can deal with it without major trouble," Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Takao Kitabata told a news conference.
Japan has a stockpile of 168 days worth of oil stored by the government and the private sector, according to the trade ministry.
Watari meanwhile said that East Asia was facing increasingly tight crude oil supplies as Asian sources diminish while Chinese demand expands.
"Given that, dependence on the Middle Eastern oil will rise in coming years," from 74 percent of the region's total consumption in 2005 to 79 percent in 2010, he said.
"Japan, as a country which has cutting-edge technology of efficient energy use, should transfer its technology to other countries," Watari added.
©AFP