Japanese Refiners Urge Government to Release Strategic Oil Reserves

Japan’s oil refiners, which source about 95% of their crude supply from the Middle East, are calling on the Japanese government to tap the strategic petroleum reserves to ensure smooth operations and crude for refineries as the Middle East war escalates. Japanese refiners are in talks with the government to potentially access strategic stockpiles and oil stored in tanks that are leased to producing countries, anonymous sources with knowledge of the development told Bloomberg on Thursday. On Tuesday,…