Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan increased 14.9 percent in July from a year earlier to 7.58 million barrels, or 244,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the eighth consecutive month, government data showed Thursday.
As Japan’s third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 10.5 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 8.1 percent in the same month of last year, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.
Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in July fell 10.6 percent year-on-year to 2.34 million bpd, down for the first time in two months.
Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 95.2 percent of the total, down 2.5 percentage points from the year before. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) returned to be Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, although imports from the country slid 11.7 percent from a year earlier to 968,000 bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 889,000 bpd, down 3.2 percent.
Qatar ranked fourth with 98,000 bpd and the US fifth with 70,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US.
Source: Kuwait News Agency