Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan jump 37.9 percent

Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan in June surged 37.9 percent from a year earlier to 6.94 million barrels, or 231,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the second straight month, government data showed. As Japan’s fifth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.2 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports of crude oil fell 10.4 percent year-on-year to 2.81 million bpd in June, declining for the second month in a row. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 84.6 percent of the total, down 5.1 percentage points from the year before. Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, but imports from the kingdom dropped 3.4 percent from a year earlier to 979,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 737,000 bpd, down 10.8 percent. Russia ranked third with 284,000 bpd and Qatar fourth with 237,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China, importing virtually all its fossil fuels.