TOKYO: Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan jumped 12.2 percent in February from a year earlier to 8.13 million barrels, or 280,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the second month in a row, government data showed.
As Japan’s fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.1 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 1.9 percent year-on-year to 3.46 million bpd for the third consecutive monthly drop. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 82.5 percent of the total, up 0.1 percentage points from the year before.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, but imports from the kingdom declined 4.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.20 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 754,000 bpd, down 6.1 percent. Qatar ranked third with 400,000 bpd and Russia fifth with 240,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China.
