Japan Tells Trump Tokyo Will Struggle to Ban Russian LNG Imports
Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, told U.S. President Donald Trump at their meeting in Tokyo earlier this week that Japan would find it difficult to ban LNG imports from Russia, Japanese government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
President Trump visited Japan earlier this week and held bilateral talks with Takaichi and other top Japanese officials. The two leaders praised a new “golden age of the ever-growing U.S.-Japan Alliance” and signed a framework agreement to support the mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths, as they seek to counter the dominance of China in the sector.
However, before the summit, the U.S. began to request Japan to reduce and eventually cut off imports of Russian energy.
The issue with Japan’s LNG imports from Russia came up during this week’s meeting between President Trump and Takaichi, with Japan’s PM seeking understanding from the U.S. Administration about the Japanese energy security, according to Reuters’ sources.
Japan imports Russian LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project, in which Japanese firms Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold minority stakes, which they kept even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, due to the importance of LNG supply for Japan.
Russian LNG accounts for about 9% of Japan’s total liquefied natural gas imports.
On the eve of President Trump’s visit to Japan, the U.S. reiterated calls on its allies, including Japan, to stop importing energy products from Russia.
Japan responded that it would base any decisions about energy imports on its national interests, following the suggestions from the Trump Administration that Japan suspend all purchases of Russian oil and gas.
The Trump administration has embarked on a pressure campaign against all large importers of Russian hydrocarbons on the grounds that depriving Russia of energy export revenues would deprive it of the financial means to continue fighting the Ukrainian forces.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
HPCL-Mittal Energy Becomes First Indian Refiner to Halt Russian Oil Imports
Refiner HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) has become the first Indian oil company to suspend Russian crude purchases following new U.S., U.K., and E.U. sanctions targeting Moscow’s oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil. The move marks a major shift in India’s Russian oil trade, which has surged since 2022.
HMEL, a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy, said it receives Russian crude on a delivered-at-port basis—meaning the supplier arranges shipping and logistics, insulating the buyer from potential sanctions breaches. “The company is not aware if any cargoes previously passed through sanctioned vessels,” HMEL said, adding that all deliveries undergo strict due diligence, including vessel history checks and sanctions screening.
The clarification followed a Financial Times report alleging that four recent HMEL shipments involved vessels previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). HMEL confirmed that the vessel Samadha, which discharged Russian oil at Mundra Port for its Bathinda refinery, was not under sanctions at the time of delivery.
HMEL emphasized that its operations serve India’s domestic energy needs, with no exports to the U.S., U.K., or E.U. It said it had “suspended further Russian crude purchases pending completion of outstanding orders,” and would continue to align with government policy and international compliance frameworks.
The suspension follows Washington’s latest sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, which together account for over half of Russia’s oil output and more than two-thirds of Indian Russian oil imports. Industry officials say the curbs could sharply reduce India’s intake of Russian barrels, which supplied over 35% of India’s crude imports in 2025.
India’s largest refiners, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Reliance Industries (RIL), have also signaled full compliance with international sanctions. While New Delhi continues to oppose unilateral sanctions in principle, refiners and banks are expected to act with caution to avoid exposure to secondary U.S. sanctions, which can restrict access to dollar transactions and global financial systems.
India's Biggest Refiner Partners with World's Top Crude Trader
India’s biggest refiner, state-held Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, is preparing to launch in early 2026 a trading joint venture with the world’s biggest independent oil trader, Vitol, to trade crude and fuels, a source familiar with the plans told Reuters on Wednesday.
Indian Oil, which together with its unit Chennai Petroleum holds about 31% of all of India’s refining capacity, had discussed a venture with supermajors BP and TotalEnergies and commodity trading giant Trafigura, before picking Vitol for the new trading JV, according to the Reuters source.
The Indian Oil-Vitol joint venture will be based in Singapore and will operate for a 5 to 7 year period initially. Each of the two joint venture partners will have an exit clause in the agreement, the source told Reuters.
The rationale behind the JV deal is that Indian Oil looks to reduce costs for procuring crude on the spot market and boost margins by accessing new buyers, the source added.
Indian Oil expects to need larger crude volumes via established trading channels as the refiner and other state-controlled refiners in India plan to boost their crude processing capacity over the next decade to meet rising fuel demand in the world’s third-largest crude oil importer.
The Vitol partnership could also become vital for Indian Oil in the near term as the U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top oil companies have stalled crude buying from Russia at Indian refiners, who are halting new orders for Russian crude while awaiting clarity from the government about navigating the new U.S. sanction context.
Earlier this week, Indian Oil said it will fully comply with international sanctions related to crude oil imports from Russia.
“We will abide by all sanctions imposed by the international community,” IOC Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney said on Monday, without commenting directly on the company’s ongoing purchases of Russian crude.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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