Japan expects to secure the same volume of crude oil imports in July as it did a year earlier, according to sources close to the matter on Thursday, as the country ramps up purchases from non-Middle Eastern suppliers such as the United States amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, News.Az reports, citing Kyodo.

Japan has long relied on the Middle East for more than 90 percent of its crude oil imports.

However, shipments through the Strait of Hormuz—a key global energy transit route through which around 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes—have nearly halted. This disruption has forced Japan to increasingly seek supplies from alternative sources.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to announce the outlook later in the day during a ministerial meeting focused on Japan’s response to developments in the Middle East, the sources said.

Following the launch of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in late February, the effective closure of the route has placed additional pressure on resource-poor Japan to diversify its crude oil supply sources amid uncertainty over the duration of the conflict.

Japan received its first shipment of U.S. crude oil in April after conditions in the Middle East deteriorated. Since May, the country has also secured crude supplies from Azerbaijan, South Sudan, and Russia’s Far East region of Sakhalin.

The government had previously projected that crude oil imports in June would reach about 80 percent of the level recorded a year earlier, and the outlook for July indicates further progress in securing alternative supply sources, according to the sources.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev