RI turmoil has little impact on Japanese oil traders

RI turmoil has little impact on Japanese oil traders

TOKYO (Reuters): Japan's energy market should see little
impact from the social and economic turmoil in oil producer
Indonesia, Japanese crude traders said yesterday.

"I don't expect to see (events in Indonesia) having a big
impact on Japan," one trader with a Japanese oil refiner said.

The area's leading crude oil consumer, Japan imported about
14.6 million kiloliters (kl), or 91.8 million barrels of crude
oil from Indonesia in fiscal 1997/98. This represented about 5.5
percent of crude oil imported that year.

The volume is significantly lower than that from the United
Arab Emirates, which supplies Japan with about 26.5 percent of
its crude imports, or that from Saudi Arabia, which supplies 22.1
percent.

Crude oil from Indonesia is low in sulphur, and the majority
is used by Japan's electric utilities industry.

Traders said that there had been no reports of any disruption
in oil or gas production in Indonesia and they did not expect any
problems.

There was little concern that social unrest might spread to
Indonesia's oil and gas operations, as most of the facilities
were based offshore or located far away from Jakarta, traders
said.

"I haven't heard that there's been any disruption in
operations or in any other area, nor do I think there's much
chance of that happening," another trader said.

Given that Indonesia's crude output totals about 1.5 million
barrels-per-day (bpd), one trader said some repercussions could
be expected if Indonesia's oil production were halted.