Javad Owji met with Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday, expressing his satisfaction at traveling to the beautiful country of Japan to participate in the memorial ceremony of Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, and to pay his respects and condolences to the people of Japan and the Japanese government.

“I had the opportunity to participate in the Asia Green Growth Partnership Ministerial Meeting (AGGPM) and talk with a group of the most prominent Japanese companies active in various sectors of the oil industry,” he said.

He added: “In the new Iranian administration, there is a comprehensive plan for the development of the oil industry with the forecast of attracting $160 billion of investment in eight years and bringing the level of oil production capacity to 5.7 million barrels per day and natural gas production to 1.5 billion cubic meters per day.”

Stating that Iran can play an important role in Japan's energy supply, the Iranian petroleum minister clarified: “Currently, the level of economic cooperation between the two countries is not at a decent level. Japanese companies are very well-known in Iran, and this is a valuable capital for the development of cooperation between the two countries.”

He expressed hope that the possibility of cooperation with Japanese companies in the oil, gas, refinery and petrochemical sectors will be established.

In this meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also recalled that he accompanied the Prime Minister of this country, Fumio Kishida, to the New York summit, where they met with Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and emphasized: “The leaders of the two countries are determined to develop cooperation.”

He added: "The price of oil has increased a lot in recent months, and Iran has the opportunity to take maximum advantage of this situation by finalizing the negotiations."