The nation's top energy agency official will visit Russia this month to urge Moscow to back a Japan-proposed oil route for a planned pipeline project, a senior government official said Monday.
Iwao Okamoto, director general of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, will depart July 8 for Russia and hold talks with Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov and other officials sometime between July 9 and 11, said Seiji Murata, vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Okamoto is expected to discuss various issues related to the pipeline project, including how the construction cost will be covered and the development of unexplored oil reserves in East Siberia, Murata said.