TOKYO – Japan's Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi will arrive in the Kingdom Saturday for talks on securing extra oil, an official said, after a report the two will set up a telephone hotline to allow one of the world's top importers to seek emergency supply from OPEC's biggest producer. A hotline would allow Japan to quickly seek additional oil supplies in the event of extraordinary circumstances such as terrorist attacks, unrest or a spike in the price of oil, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported. “Saudi Arabia has large spare supply capacity, so the big purpose of this visit is to request that they are ready to deal with supply instability in global oil markets by raising production,” an official in Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry said. The official declined to say whether the trade minister would request a hotline, but said the previous trade minister made a similar request for supply assurances in 2011. “These are the things that Japan has conveyed to the Saudis in oil relations for a long period, say 10 to 20 years,” the official said. “The request will be made but no one knows whether it will develop into something more detailed because the meeting has not been held yet.” Crude imports from Saudi Arabia accounted for 31 percent of Japan's total in 2012, with shipments rising 5 percent from a year earlier to 1.14 million barrels per day, partly offsetting a 39.5 percent decline in Iranian crude imports. Japan has relied on cooperation with Western oil importing countries through the International Energy Agency to ensure oil supply security since the 1970s. – Reuters
