Japan will refuse to pay in rubles for natural gas from Russia to act in concert with other Group of Seven members, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday. 

Kishida made that clear in a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, to answer questions on his trip to Brussels to attend a G-7 summit.

He also said that Japan will not withdraw from the Sakhalin-1 gas development project in Russia’s Far East.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin singed a law obliging foreign buyers of natural gas from Russia to pay in rubles. Violators may face a suspension of their gas contracts.

“Our country’s policy is to refuse the demand from Russia in line with the policy in a ministerial statement adopted at a meeting of the G-7 energy ministers,” Kishida said.
Kishida stressed that Sakhalin-1 is an “important project in terms of energy security.”

Tokyo-based Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., owned by Japanese public and private bodies, holds a 30 pct stake in the project.

Japan “will not withdraw from it as G-7 nations agreed to provide time to secure alternative and sustainable supplies,” Kishida said.

Separately, industry minister Koichi Hagiuda told a news conference that Japan will not quit the Arctic LNG 2 project.

Government-backed Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., or JOGMEC, and Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. have interests in the project to develop liquefied natural gas in Russia’s Arctic region.

JIJI Press