Japan said on Wednesday it would set up a financial framework worth about $10 billion to help Asian countries secure energy resources as the Middle East conflict has intensified competition to secure oil.
The support, aimed at preventing knock-on effects on Japan's own supply chains, would be channelled mainly through state-backed financial institutions such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI).
Announcing the plan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the support would be equivalent to as much as 1.2 billion barrels of oil, or about one year's worth of crude oil imports by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
She was speaking after a meeting of the Asia Zero-Emission Community (AZEC), a Japan-led initiative aimed at accelerating decarbonisation and energy transition in Asia.
Compared with Japan, Southeast Asian countries hold smaller oil stockpiles, leaving supplies of crude and petroleum products such as naphtha – a key feedstock for plastics – increasingly tight. A disruption in Southeast Asian production has fuelled anxiety among Japanese healthcare providers that rely on Asia for critical supplies such as containers, tubes and gloves.
(Reuters - Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Chang-Ran Kim)