Nukes trump oil

About a month ago, Passport reported on Japanese investments in Iranian oil. In case you don’t remember, Japan, one of the top oil consumers in the world (behind the U.S. and China) currently imports 14 percent of its oil from Iran. Japanese holding company Inpex, the country’s biggest oil explorer, had the rights to develop the Azedegan oil field in Iran, a deal estimated to be worth $2 billion. The company recently reduced its stake in the field from 75 percent to just 10 percent. But there were still concerns that Japan was getting itself involved in a sticky situation. Here’s the rub: Even though Inpex is a private company, the Japanese government is its largest shareholder. And with sanctions against Iran looming, what would that mean for the Asian country’s oil-hungry economy? Well, a Japanese official told me recently that the government is urging Inpex to get out of the deal as soon as possible, because the desire for nuclear deterrence is greater than the desire for oil. Because if sanctions do take place, the Japanese government will enforce them – no exceptions.