Gazprom: Japan Suggested Tokyo Gas Pipeline

Russia's top natural gas producer Gazprom is studying a suggestion from Japan to build an undersea gas pipeline to Tokyo.

"We have an offer from the Japanese side. It is about a gas pipeline to Hokkaido and, possibly, to Tokyo, and it is also about our participation in (Japan's) gas distribution and power energy ... " Miller was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"We haven't answered yet," he added, speaking in Beijing on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Interfax said.

The construction of a gas pipeline between the two countries, which has been mooted for decades, could face several obstacles, including a dispute over islands taken by Russian forces at the end of World War Two that has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal peace treaty.

Last month, newspaper Nikkei reported that Russia had proposed the pipeline, connecting its fields in the far east of the country to northern Japan.

Russia has been trying to diversify its oil and gas supplies away from Europe and forge closer ties with energy-hungry China and Japan.

However, the attempts are complicated by international sanctions, including from Tokyo, imposed on Moscow for its role in the Ukraine crisis. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin