Oil refining company Taiyo Oil (Japan) is receiving a cargo of Russian crude oil on a tanker included in the sanctions lists of the US and EU Treasury Departments. This is reported by Bloomberg.

Tokyo-based Taiyo receives 600,000 barrels of Sakhalin Blend crude oil from the Voyager tanker. The oil was loaded from the Prigorodnoye terminal on the southern tip of Sakhalin Island, off the east coast of Russia, on May 25. On June 9, the vessel docked at the Japanese port of Kikuma to unload a cargo of crude oil from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 project.

Japan is authorized to import the Sakhalin mixture for energy security reasons. Taiyo Oil confirmed the information about the supply, explaining that the purchase of crude oil was made at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. Without the crude oil supply, Japan’s liquefied natural gas production, which is supported by Japan, would be significantly affected, as the two hydrocarbons are produced simultaneously.

In February 2022, before the full-scale invasion, Japanese refineries were importing an average of four shipments of oil per month from the Sakhalin-2 project.

Some oil importers are reluctant to accept cargoes carried on US-sanctioned vessels, and many of them have been idle for months after being blacklisted.