Russia, keen to build up sales of natural gas to offset losses in Europe, has suggested that Japan buys more, and possibly take new equity stakes in liquefied natural gas projects, helping it meet an energy deficit caused by its Fukushima disaster and nuclear shutdown.

This was discussed Wednesday in closed-door Tokyo talks between Russia Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Japan Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi, said METI Oil and Natural Gas Director Ryo Minami, who was also present.

Japanese utilities, which rely on LNG to make more than half of the electricity they produce, need to line up new import deals as some 30 million tons a year of supply contracts will expire in 2017-2020, according to Wall Street Journal calculation based on utilities' press releases.

Buyers have already secured some 25 million tons of this, but a lot more will be needed as Japan 's annual LNG demand has risen by 24%, or 17 million tons a year, since the Fukushima accident in 2011 and the subsequent closure of nearly all of Japan 's nuclear plants.

"Russia has a few projects (in which) it wants Japan's cooperation," including a Vladivostok LNG project, Mr. Minami said, adding this could be in the form of fuel purchases or joining projects.

Japan is the world largest LNG importer, shipping in 87 million tons last year, but only 9.5% of this came from Russia . In recent years, Japanese utilities have signed strings of long-term purchase agreements with emerging world-class gas exporter Australia , and taken mostly small stakes in LNG export projects there.

"It would depend on prices," Japan 's METI Minister Motegi told his Russian counterpart.

Russia has been in on-off gas supply talks with China for years. Plans to build two gas pipelines from East Siberia into China have run into a wall due to arguments over the price of the gas.

Mr. Novak's visit to Tokyo follow three announcements in February that have the potential to shake up the Asian LNG market.

One was U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) saying it and Russia 's OAO Rosneft (ROSN.RS) may build an LNG plant on Sakhalin island where they have stakes in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project. Also in February, President Vladimir Putin said he might allow Rosneft to export LNG, breaking a monopoly held by OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS).

Previously, Exxon Mobil, which is operator and 30% owner of Sakhalin-1, indicated it wanted to sell gas from the venture to China , via a pipeline. This was opposed by a METI-led Japanese consortium with a 30% stake, Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., which wanted to ship gas to Japan in the form of LNG.

Thirdly, Gazprom said it will push ahead with building an LNG export terminal at Vladivostok , near Sakhalin , which could be exporting as much as 5 million tons of LNG a year by 2018. Gazprom had been in discussion on this with a Itochu Corp. (8001.TO)-led Japanese consortium for several years.

Gazprom says possible customers for Vladivostok-origin LNG could include state energy giant China National Petroleum Corp.

These developments came as Russia-Japan tensions were running high over Japanese allegations in early February that Russian fighter jets had intruded over its northern airspace in the first such incident in five years.

Despite their extensive economic ties, Russia and Japan haven't signed a World War II peace treaty due to their dispute over what are known as the southern Kuril Islands by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan .

Even so, business is booming. Two-way trade between the two countries rose 8.5% to Y2.66 trillion ($30 billion) in 2012, with Japan registering a deficit of Y654.6 billion.

Far Eastern Russian supplies have a major transport cost advantage, as sailing time to Japanese waters is just one day from Vladivostok compared with about 20 days from the Middle East and 14 days from Australia .

However, Russian sellers will need to beat off competition from LNG export projects planned in the U.S. , Canada and Mozambique and traditional producers Australia , Indonesia , Qatar and Malaysia .

Competitors such as Norway 's Statoil ASA (STO) are chipping away at Gazprom's European market share by offering clients there more flexible contracts and prices not linked to oil. Gazprom's gas sales to the E.U. fell 9.1% last year from 2011, but it has said it won't change its pricing policy.

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