TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) -

Japan's industry ministry said Friday that foreign projects,

including Russia's Sakhalin-1, remain critical to the country's

energy security, following new U.S. sanctions on Rosneft

, a key shareholder alongside Japanese partners.

Last month, Washington sanctioned Russia's Rosneft and Lukoil

in the most recent step to force the Kremlin to end

the war in Ukraine. The U.S. will allow operations with the two

to wind down until November 21.

Before Tokyo halted imports of Russian crude in February

2023 - following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine the year before -

Russian supplies

partly offset Japan's more than 90% reliance on Middle East

oil.

"The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will continue to

recognise the importance of the Sakhalin-1 project and will take

all necessary measures to ensure that Japan's energy security is

not adversely affected," METI said on Friday in response to a

question about the sanctions on Rosneft.

ExxonMobil ( XOM ), which used to own a 30% stake in

Sakhalin-1, left Russia in 2022.

Before Exxon's exit, Rosneft and India's ONGC Videsh

owned a 20% stake in the project each and another 30%

was controlled by the SODECO consortium involving METI, Marubeni ( MARUF )

, Itochu ( ITOCF ), Japan Petroleum Exploration ( JPTXF )

and Inpex ( IPXHF ).

Reuters reported earlier on Friday that Japan, the world's

No.2 LNG importer, plans to buy liquefied natural gas for

emergency reserves on a monthly basis from January, versus

buying only during peak demand periods, to guard against supply

shocks.

While not directly linked, an increase in emergency LNG

purchases would help to manage supply shocks such as possible

interruptions from the Sakhalin-2 LNG project, as the U.S. has

urged Japan and other allies to stop imports of Russian energy

as part of efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.