Tokyo, February 26:

Russia reassured Japan that it would still honour contracts to provide Tokyo with natural gas after concerns about Moscow’s decision to take state control of a major private energy project.

Japan is almost entirely dependent on imports for oil and gas needs and is set to be main market for the giant Sakhalin-2 gas project in eastern Russia, which Russian monopoly Gazprom took majority control of in December.

The Kremlin cited environmental concerns for the intervention but foreign investors widely saw it as a power grab for Sakhalin-2, which was to be the world’s largest privately financed energy project.

“The existing LNG contracts with Japanese firms will definitely be implemented,” a Japanese official quoted Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko telling Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso in talks here.

The Sakhalin project was run by British-Dutch group Shell in a consortium with Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi until December, when the companies ceded majority control to Gazprom after months of pressure.

On a separate energy project, Aso pressed for the quick construction of a 16 billion-dollar oil pipeline to a port facing Japan, the official said.