우크라 돕겠다더니…日, 러시아 원유 '고가에 수입'
G7 등 시행하는 가격 상한은 60달러
러시아의 우크라이나 침공에 대항해 서방의 대(對)러시아 제재 행렬에 동참한 일본이 에너지 시장에선 러시아를 끊어내지 못하고 있다는 분석이 나왔다.
2일(현지 시각) 미국 일간 월스트리트저널(WSJ)에 따르면, 일본이 올해 러시아산 석유를 가격 상한을 넘긴 가격에 수입한 것으로 나타났다. WSJ은 미국의 가장 가까운 아시아 동맹국 중 하나인 일본이 미국의 주도하에 진행 중인 러시아산 원유 가격 상한제에서 발을 빼 동맹에 균열을 줬다고 평가했다.
일본 공식 무역 통계를 보면 일본은 올해 1∼2월 러시아 석유 약 74만8000배럴을 총 69억 엔(약 5200만 달러·680억원)에 사들인 것으로 나타났다. 이는 배럴당 약 69.5달러로 계산된다.
주요 7개국(G7)과 유럽연합(EU), 호주는 러시아산 원유 및 정제 유류제품에 대해 배럴당 60달러의 가격 상한을 시행 중인데, G7 국가인 일본이 가격 상한을 훌쩍 넘겨 러시아산 원유를 구매한 것이다.
WSJ은 러시아산 에너지 의존도가 높은 일본이 이 부분에 대해 미리 미국의 양해를 구했다고 전했다. 미국은 러시아 극동 에너지 개발사업인 '사할린-2 프로젝트'에서 일본이 구매하는 러시아산 원유에 대해서는 오는 9월30일까지 한시적으로 가격 상한제를 적용하지 않기로 했다.
이는 러시아산 에너지 제재에 참여하는 서방의 단결이 쉽게 흔들릴 수 있다는 것을 보여준다고 WSJ은 지적했다.
우크라이나 전쟁 발발 후 유럽 국가 등이 러시아산 에너지 의존도를 크게 낮췄지만, 일본은 지난 한 해 동안 러시아 에너지 수입을 오히려 늘렸다. 일본의 작년 러시아산 천연가스 수입량은 전년보다 4.6% 증가한 것으로 집계됐다.
일본이 수입하는 천연가스 중 러시아산의 비중은 거의 10분의 1에 달한다. 이는 대부분 사할린-2 프로젝트에서 생산된 천연가스다.
일본 경제산업성 관계자는 "일본은 안정적인 에너지 공급을 위해 사할린-2 천연가스에 대한 접근성을 보장받고자 한다"며 "사할린-2의 액화천연가스(LNG)를 계속 생산하려면 함께 추출되는 소량의 원유도 함께 구매해야 하고, 가격은 러시아와 일본의 협상으로 결정된다"고 설명했다.
사할린-2 프로젝트에는 일본 기업들도 참여하고 있다. 일본의 미쓰이물산과 미쓰비시상사는 사할린-2 프로젝트의 지분 총 22.5%를 보유하고 있다.
일본은 러시아와 분쟁 중인 쿠릴 4개 섬(일본명 북방영토) 문제를 해결하기 위해서도 러시아 에너지를 지속해서 구매해왔다.
이런 상황은 일본의 전폭적인 우크라이나 지원을 가로막는다고 WSJ은 분석했다. 일본은 G7에서 유일하게 우크라이나에 무기를 제공하지 않고 있고, 기시다 후미오 일본 총리는 G7 지도자 중 가장 늦게 지난달 우크라이나를 방문했다.
김지원 디지털팀 기자 skylarkim0807@hotmail.com
기자 프로필
Japan Breaks With U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap
Citing energy needs, Tokyo won exception to rules binding G-7 nations
TOKYO—The U.S. has rallied its European allies behind a $60-a-barrel cap on purchases of Russian crude oil, but one of Washington’s closest allies in Asia is now buying oil at prices above the cap.
Japan got the U.S. to agree to the exception, saying it needed it to ensure access to Russian energy. The concession shows Japan’s reliance on Russia for fossil fuels, which analysts said contributed to a hesitancy in Tokyo to back Ukraine more fully in its war with Russia.
While many European countries have reduced their dependence on Russian energy supplies, Japan has stepped up its purchases of Russian natural gas over the past year. Japan is the only Group of Seven nation not to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was the last G-7 leader to visit Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
Mr. Kishida has said the G-7 summit he is hosting this May in his hometown of Hiroshima will demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine. Tokyo has said it is committed to supporting Kyiv and can’t send weapons because of longstanding export restrictions the cabinet has imposed on itself.
“We absolutely will not allow Russia’s outrageous act, and we are imposing strict sanctions on Russia in order to stop Russia’s invasion as soon as possible,” said chief government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno.
The oil purchases, while tiny and authorized by the U.S., represent a break in the unity of U.S.-led efforts to impose a global $60-a-barrel cap on purchases of Russian crude oil.
The cap works because oil-buying nations, even if they aren’t aligned with the U.S., generally need to use insurance and other services from companies based in the U.S. or one of its allies. The G-7, the European Union and Australia have agreed to rules forbidding those companies from furnishing services if a buyer of Russian oil is paying more than $60 a barrel.
The nations last year granted an exception to the cap through Sept. 30 for oil purchased by Japan from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East.
An official of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tokyo wanted to ensure access to Sakhalin-2’s main product, natural gas, which is liquefied and shipped to Japan. “We have done this with an eye toward having a stable supply of energy for Japan,” the official said.
He said a small quantity of crude oil is extracted alongside the natural gas at Sakhalin-2 and needs to be sold to ensure liquefied natural gas, or LNG, production continues. “The price is decided by negotiations between the two parties,” he said.
Russia accounts for nearly one-tenth of Japan’s natural-gas imports, most of it from Sakhalin-2, and the quantity bought by Japan last year was 4.6% greater than in the previous year.
That marks a contrast with Germany, which relied on Russia for 55% of its natural-gas imports before the war and survived a complete cutoff through a quick remodeling of its import infrastructure. Germany’s economy grew last year faster than Japan’s, bucking forecasts of a German recession triggered by the cutoff of Russian gas.
“It’s not as if Japan can’t manage without this. They can. They simply don’t want to,” said James Brown, a professor at Temple University’s Japan campus. Prof. Brown, who studies Russia-Japan relations, said Japan should move to withdraw from the Sakhalin projects eventually “if they’re really serious about supporting Ukraine.”
Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp., two Japanese companies, collectively own a 22.5% stake in Sakhalin-2 and successfully pushed to maintain the stake last year with backing from Tokyo when Russia’s government under President Vladimir Putin restructured the project and installed a new Russian operator.
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In the first two months of this year, Japan bought about 748,000 barrels of Russian oil for a total of ¥6.9 billion, according to official trade statistics. At the current exchange rate, that translates to $52 million, or just under $70 a barrel. Russia exports millions of barrels of oil a day, making Japan’s purchases a minuscule share of total Russian output.
Japan has almost no fossil fuel of its own and relies on imported natural gas and coal for much of its electricity. Officials have said it would be self-defeating to give up access to the Russian liquefied natural gas because Russia could turn around and sell the LNG to China.
In addition to the price cap, the U.S. and many of its allies have largely banned the import of Russian oil into their own countries.
U.S. officials have said for months that the cap has been generally successful in pushing down Russia’s oil revenue while stabilizing global oil markets. Russia’s budget has suffered this year as the price of its crude has dropped, while global oil benchmarks have stabilized as Russian production has fallen only modestly. The U.S. and its allies have also placed two additional price caps on Russian petroleum products.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japan has pursued energy links to Russia in part to advance its goal of recovering a group of northern islands seized by Soviet troops in 1945. The late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Mr. Putin more than two dozen times in hopes of reaching a territorial deal and a formal Japan-Russia peace agreement, which was never concluded after World War II.
Andrew Duehren in Washington and Chieko Tsuneoka in Tokyo contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com
The War in Ukraine, One Year On
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Japan Breaks With U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap
Citing energy needs, Tokyo won legal exception to rules binding Group of Seven nations.
www.wsj.com
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