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Exclusive: Japan makes first oil payment to Iran in a year: sources

Japan this week became the first of Iran’s oil buyers to make a payment for crude imports under an interim nuclear deal, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as the West eased a year-long stranglehold on revenues that has crippled the Iranian economy. Tough international sanctions over the past two years have cut Iran’s oil exports in half. U.S. measures imposed a year ago stopped the remaining importers of Iranian oil from transferring cash to Tehran, starving the OPEC member of its principal source of hard currency and forcing Iran to the negotiating table over its disputed nuclear program. Tokyo’s role in sending the first funds may be a boon for Japanese firms jostling for position with international rivals to invest in Iran’s oil and gas sector, should a further agreement end Tehran’s international isolation. It is unclear why Japan was the first of Iran’s oil buyers […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fukushima Wash-Up Fears in U.S. Belie Radiation Risks: Energy

Seaborne radiation from Japan ’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will wash up on the West Coast of the U.S. this year. That’s raising concerns among some Americans including the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfax, which passed a resolution on Dec. 6 calling for more testing of coastal seafood. At the same time, oceanographers and radiological scientists say such concerns are unwarranted given existing levels of radiation in the ocean. The runoff from the Japanese plant will mingle with radiation released by other atomic stations, such as Diablo Canyon in California . Under normal operations, Diablo Canyon discharges more radiation into the sea, albeit of a less dangerous isotope, than the Fukushima station, which suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. “There’s a point to be made that we live in a radioactive world and the ocean just has radioactive isotopes in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Toyota Output Sets Industry Record

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it produced more than 10 million vehicles world-wide last year, making it the first auto maker to post annual output above that threshold. The record volume comes as the Japanese car maker is setting its sights on exceeding that same number in vehicles sold this year–which would also be an industry record–counting on solid demand in the world’s two biggest auto markets, China and the U.S. Toyota has rebounded after several tough years, encompassing the 2008 recession, several large global recalls and production disruptions following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The company said it produced 10.12 million vehicles globally in 2013, up 2.1% from the previous year. Higher output in the Americas and Europe offset sluggish production in its home market. Output in Japan fell 3.9% to 3.36 million, though still higher than the three million level the company aims […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Japan’s fuel imports contribute to record trade deficit

TOKYO, Jan. 27 (UPI) — Soaring fuel imports in the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, amid a weaker yen, have contributed to the country’s record annual trade deficit, a government official said. Japan Monday reported a trade deficit of $112.07 billion in 2013, up 65.3 percent from the previous year. “Energy imports have been rising significantly since the nuclear accident,” causing per capita costs of around $293 in Japan, Kyodo News quoted Yoshihide Suga, chief Cabinet secretary as telling reporters. “It is important for us to ease such a burden as much as possible.” All 50 of Japan’s working reactors currently remain offline, pending safety checks. Japan relies on imports for more than 90 percent of its energy needs. Imports of liquefied natural gas to Japan last year rose 17.5 percent and imports of crude oil rose 16.3 percent. With those import costs expected to grow, amid […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Japan's fuel imports contribute to record trade deficit

TOKYO, Jan. 27 (UPI) — Soaring fuel imports in the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, amid a weaker yen, have contributed to the country’s record annual trade deficit, a government official said. Japan Monday reported a trade deficit of $112.07 billion in 2013, up 65.3 percent from the previous year. “Energy imports have been rising significantly since the nuclear accident,” causing per capita costs of around $293 in Japan, Kyodo News quoted Yoshihide Suga, chief Cabinet secretary as telling reporters. “It is important for us to ease such a burden as much as possible.” All 50 of Japan’s working reactors currently remain offline, pending safety checks. Japan relies on imports for more than 90 percent of its energy needs. Imports of liquefied natural gas to Japan last year rose 17.5 percent and imports of crude oil rose 16.3 percent. With those import costs expected to grow, amid […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Before the cold snap, Japan’s demand for direct-burning crude was seen as largely tepid for January and February loading cargoes following strong interest seen for December-loading cargoes.

SJapan’s direct-burning crude oil demand for power generation has picked up since late December as a cold spell across the country has increased appetite for loadings into March in the absence of nuclear output, industry and trading sources said Thursday. "Indeed, oil demand picked up [for power generation] this month," an industry source said. The source said Japanese incremental oil demand for power generation typically goes to fuel oil first, but it has fallen to crude in recent weeks amid further run cuts at Japanese refineries. In late December, a cargo of prompt January-loading Minas — which was heard to have gone into overhang from November to December — and a cargo of February-loading Minas were placed, but details of the trades were not clear, according to trading sources. The cargoes were heard to be headed to Japan. The Asia Pacific sweet crude market […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Before the cold snap, Japan's demand for direct-burning crude was seen as largely tepid for January and February loading cargoes following strong interest seen for December-loading cargoes.

SJapan’s direct-burning crude oil demand for power generation has picked up since late December as a cold spell across the country has increased appetite for loadings into March in the absence of nuclear output, industry and trading sources said Thursday. "Indeed, oil demand picked up [for power generation] this month," an industry source said. The source said Japanese incremental oil demand for power generation typically goes to fuel oil first, but it has fallen to crude in recent weeks amid further run cuts at Japanese refineries. In late December, a cargo of prompt January-loading Minas — which was heard to have gone into overhang from November to December — and a cargo of February-loading Minas were placed, but details of the trades were not clear, according to trading sources. The cargoes were heard to be headed to Japan. The Asia Pacific sweet crude market […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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New leak found in Fukushima plant’s wrecked No. 3 building

A new water leak, possibly from the effort to cool a crippled reactor, has been detected on the first floor of a reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Jan. 18. TEPCO said workers discovered by a video feed that water was leaking on the first floor of the wrecked No. 3 reactor building earlier in the day. The utility added that the water was flowing into the basement of the reactor building and not outside the structure. It is investigating the source of the leak. TEPCO suggested the possibilities that the water was leaking from a pipe that is sending cooling water to the reactor or from the reactor containment vessel. If the leak is from water being used to cool the reactor, it would be highly contaminated and a new headache for TEPCO […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Japanese rivers unleash ‘perennial supply’ of radiation into Pacific Ocean

A study published in the Elsevier journal Anthropocene late last year has revealed that many of the rivers, streams and other waterways located throughout coastal Japan have inadvertently become delivery systems for transporting radioactive waste directly from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility into the Pacific Ocean. Researchers from both France and Japan discovered this after conducting a thorough sediment and soil erosion analysis, which revealed the presence of cesium-137, cesium-134 and even radioactive silver in the runoff from coastal rivers. A total of 2,200 soil samples were collected as part of the study, which was originally designed to look at the normal biogeochemical cycles and dispersion of contaminants via rivers and waterways. Since it is already known that rivers play a functional role in cleansing the natural environment of toxins, a team of scientists from the Laboratory for Climate Sciences and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple