Japan plans to rush through a bill to provide more financial muscle for its companies to compete for global energy assets, just as other resource-hungry Asian economies such as China and India are also looking to snap up depressed oil assets.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet intends to revise a law governing the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC) to allow the state-run agency to partake in purchases of foreign oil and gas companies, government officials said.

Previously, JOGMEC was restricted to involvement in purchases of foreign energy resources by Japanese companies and the change would enable it to buy into foreign state-backed oil firms or join in acquisitions of overseas oil and gas firms by Japanese companies.