FILE PHOTO: A LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) tanker is seen behind a port in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan, September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
March 10, 2022
By Rocky Swift and Yuka Obayashi
TOKYO (Reuters) – Resource-poor Japan depends overwhelmingly on fossil-fuel imports to meet its energy needs, complicating calls for the nation to boycott Russia’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Here’s what’s at stake:
WHAT’S IN JAPAN’S ENERGY MIX, AND WHY IS LNG SO IMPORTANT?
Japan gets most of its primary energy needs from crude oil, more than 90% of which comes from the Middle East, based on government data. LNG comprises about 24% of the total energy mix.
But LNG takes up a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to electricity production, at 36%. That dependence has increased since 2011, when most of Japan’s nuclear…
