Japan Deepening Ties with Leading Oil Producer Saudi Arabia
- Posted on September 12, 2011 at 4:19pm by
Becket Adams
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Since Japan and Saudi Arabia established diplomatic relations in 1955, Japan has become one of the biggest importers of Saudi oil, with trade in 2010 exceeding $43 billion.
According to a recent 24/7 Wall St. report, Japanese direct investment in Saudi Arabia is now the third largest among nations’ foreign direct investment, a relationship that Japan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Shigeru Endo has characterized as “complimentary.”
Japan, with few domestic energy resources, is only 16 percent energy self-sufficient and is now the world’s third largest oil consumer in the world behind the United States and China and the globe’s third largest net importer of crude oil, according to the U.S. government Energy Information Administration.
“While the complementary relationship will remain unchanged into the future, room for expansion and diversification of the bilateral relations is now emerging. What we have to do is to find good seeds and plant them leaving the future generations to reap the harvest… Such relationship naturally goes beyond simple trade of energy and manufactured goods,” Endo said.
Saudi Arabia remains Japan’s biggest oil supplier. According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in January Saudi Arabia supplied Japan with 34.28 million barrels, or 27.5 percent of Japan’s total imports 2011, with the United Arab Emirates providing 28.62 million barrels, or 23 percent of Japan’s crude imports, which means that more than half of Japan’s needs for crude oil came from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
(Charles Kennedy/Becket Adams, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com/The Blaze)
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OniKaze
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 12:20pmYou know, I am willing to bet that our relationship with Japan is good enough that we could get them to stop this, and only buy oil from us… Ohh.. Wait… The Fuhrer’s regieme is not letting us drill for more oil, and is drastically cutting our own reserves… Which leaves no oil to sell to other places…
Scratch that idea..
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 11:48amI don’t blame Japan at all, until it decides on the future of its use of Nuclear energy and its dire need for energy for its hungry economy, I think its in their best interest at this time to get more oil from Saudi Arabia and hopefully in 2013 here in the US we will open oil exploration to its max and start to not only have enough to completely get us off all foreign oil, but we’ll have enough surplus to supply to our strong Ally Japan as well and start rebuilding our foreign relationships with our allies and start to rebuild a strong network of peaceful and prosperous nations and very aggressively undo the severe damage Obama has caused to the US and the World over the last 3 years
Report Post »kung
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 9:28amCompetition for oil is only going to get more fierce in the years ahead. People who believe the solution is drill-baby-drill don’t grasp the concept of diminishing returns. Burning a couple barrels of oil in order to produce one is not a sound plan.
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 1:30pmHowever…
By having committed path is…
You can’t shut off oil today and expect technology that needs 20 years to evolve, reduce and mature to happen in 2 years, that is what Lib’s think…
If we kick in massive oil/gas access now – get the supplies we need NOW to make our energy costs plummet and put us on a firm economic footing against the world to compete more aggressively, and get our economy back into a solid footing…
Now we can progress to develop the cost reducing path towards technologies that WILL… someday power our nation – specifically Hydrogen generators – right now, they are big, costly and inefficient… just like mainframes were back in the 70‘s and 80’s, today we have Macbooks with more horsepower, a 1000th the cost, uses little power and costs 100,000th of what a mainframe cost… this will happen with hydrogen… in 20 years. In the meantime we need a stop gap to power us for 20 years – that is oil/gas… meanwhile we should triple our nuclear plants with the latest generation of Breeder Reactors – 1000X safer, more affordable and more power: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf08.html
Oil/gas, more nuclear (gotta go green – nuclear is green) and move towards a 20 year path towards affordable hydrogen generators.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:41amAt least we have our OWN ENERGY SUPPLIES so we don’t have to kiss Saudi A $ $ We just need to go get it now.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 8:31amJapan did their best to become energy independent via Nuclear power. Now they are strengthening the ties that bind and preening the hand that feeds them.
Report Post »1casawizard
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 9:20pmThey would be a good customer of the U.S. if we could drill-baby-drill for crude and natural gas.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 6:28pmOne marble-sized piece of thorium can supply an American’s energy needs for LIFE. If Japan had had LFTR’s (Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors), then the Fukashima Daiichi radition reasae could NOT have happened. Check out http://energyfromthorium.com/ to learn how we (America) have had the needed technology since the 1960′s.
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