TOKYO - Japan expects to secure the same volume of crude oil imports in July as it did a year earlier, sources close to the matter said Thursday, ramping up purchases from non-Middle Eastern suppliers like the United States amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan has relied on the Middle East for more than 90 percent of its crude oil imports. But shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy route through which around 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally pass, have nearly halted, forcing Japan to seek supplies elsewhere.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to announce the outlook at a ministerial meeting later in the day on the country's response to developments in the Middle East, the sources said.
Following the launch of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, the closure has added pressure on resource-poor Japan to diversify crude sources due to uncertainty over when the war will end.
Japan received its first U.S. crude shipment in April after the Middle East situation worsened. Since May, it has also secured crude from Azerbaijan, South Sudan and Sakhalin in Russia's Far East.
The government had projected that crude imports in June would reach around 80 percent of the level a year earlier and the July outlook reflects further progress in securing alternative supplies, the sources said.
