Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan jumped 21.1 percent in June from a year earlier to 6.89 million barrels, or 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the seventh month in a row, government data showed Monday.
As Japan’s third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 10.1 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 8.3 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 June edged up 0.1 percent year-on-year to 2.28 million bpd, up for the first time in five months. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 97.3 percent of the total, up 2.6 percentage points from the year before.
Saudi Arabia returned to be Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom growing 3.7 percent from a year earlier to 945,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 863,000 bpd, down 5.6 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 110,000 bpd and the Khafji Neutral Zone fifth with 48,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US.
Source: Kuwait News Agency