Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama and Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov announced during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday that the two countries had agreed to cooperate in hydrogen and ammonia production. Japan’s industry ministry also inked a memorandum of cooperation with Novatek on hydrogen, ammonia, CCS and CCU. The ministry said it aims to sign similar agreements with other Russian energy companies later this month.
This indicates that the long-time oil and gas partners are shifting their focus on alternative energy. The two countries will conduct joint research on emission reduction technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). Japan’s energy transition plans will benefit from cooperation with Russia, which produced 10% of global ammonia in 2020.
Japan is speeding up its efforts to establish global supply chains of potentially carbon-free future fuels, such as hydrogen and ammonia. Japan aims to raise its hydrogen consumption from about 2 million tonnes now to 3 million tons/year by 2030 and 20 million tons/year by 2050. It also plans to increase its ammonia fuel consumption from zero now to 3 million tons/year by 2030.
