TOKYO, June 28: Japan, keen to become a major Russian oil importer, has decided to provide Moscow with aid of up to $7.54 billion to develop an oil field in Eastern Siberia, a Japanese economic daily reported on Saturday.

The planned aid comes after Russia and China vowed last month to beef up cooperation in the oil and gas sector — including the construction of a huge Russia-China oil pipeline.

This has thrown into doubt Japan’s hopes for a project to build a pipeline to the Pacific port of Nakhodka to ship oil to Japan, the world’s second-largest oil importer.

The planned aid is aimed at tilting Russian thinking towards building an oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to Nakhodka in the Russian Far East, instead of to Daqing, China, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi flew to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East on Saturday for talks with Russia officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko.

Kawaguchi plans to discuss with Khristenko the pipeline project on Sunday.

The financial aid, expected to total between 750 billion yen and 900 billion yen, would include unspecified low-interest loans, the Nikkei said.

Japanese officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.

In talks with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in St Petersburg last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said only that the Nakhodka pipeline, worth some $4-$5 billion, was worth considering.

Analysts have said the pipeline to the Pacific could be built only after 2010, when more oil is found in Eastern Siberia, which may contain as much energy wealth as Western Siberia.—Reuters