February 21, 2022 [S&PGlobal] – Japan plans to sell an additional 260,000 kiloliters, or 1.64 million barrels, of Khafji and Hout crude oil from its national petroleum reserves via public tenders in March, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Feb. 16, the latest in its joint efforts with the US and other countries to stabilize oil prices.
Once all of Khafji and Hout crude oil produced in the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait partitioned Neutral Zone is sold in the next tenders, Japan will sell a total of around 360,000 kiloliters, or 2.26 million barrels, of crude oil from its national petroleum reserves.
In tenders scheduled to take place on March 9, Japan will offer up to two shipments of Khafji crude, amounting to around 150,000 kiloliters, or 943,470 barrels, from ENEOS’ Kiire oil terminal in the southwest for delivery over April 20-July 31, METI said.
The country will also offer in a separate tender one shipment of 110,000 kiloliters, or 691,878 barrels, of Hout crude oil from the Tomakomai-Tobu national oil storage terminal in northern Japan for delivery over April 20-Aug. 20, METI said.
It was not immediately clear whether Japan will offer more crude oil from its national petroleum reserves for sale in the near future.
Japan’s latest planned crude oil sales from the national reserves came just a week after it sold about 100,000 kiloliters, or 629,000 barrels, of Oman crude oil from the reserves via a Feb. 9 public tender.
The crude was sold to a Japanese buyer at the official selling price for February loadings of the Oman crude, a METI official said Feb. 9, declining to elaborate on the awarded price.
Replacing crude
Japan’s sales of national petroleum reserves was made by advancing its planned sales of crude oil for replacement in the national petroleum reserves without violating the country’s petroleum stockpiling law, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Nov. 24, 2021.
METI minister Koichi Hagiuda had also said on Nov. 24 that Japan’s planned sales of national oil reserves will be about “a couple of hundred thousand kiloliters,” but had declined to elaborate on details such as sales volumes and tender dates.
In recent years, Japan has been replacing medium and heavy crude stocks in the national petroleum reserves with lighter grades, reflecting the growing domestic demand for lighter oil products.
The Japanese announcement came after the US announced Nov. 23, 2021 that it will release 50 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a unified effort with several other major oil-consuming countries to reign in high fuel prices.
At the end of December, Japan held a total of around 484 million barrels of petroleum reserves, equating to 241 days of domestic consumption, comprising national petroleum reserves, oil reserves held by the private sector and a joint crude oil storage scheme with Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, according to the latest METI data released Feb. 15.
Crude oil stocks in the national oil reserves accounted for 285.99 million barrels of the total, while oil products in the national reserves another 8.99 million barrels. Privately-held crude reserves totaled 78.30 million barrels, with oil product stocks at 102.90 million barrels, while 7.79 million barrels were held by Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in Japan.
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