TOKYO: Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan in September surged 20.5 percent from a year earlier to 8.23 million barrels, or 274,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first rise in two months, government data showed. As Japan’s third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.7 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 went down 2.0 percent year-on-year to 3.17 million bpd for the two consecutive month of fall. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 89.1 percent of the total, up 2.0 percentage points from the year before.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom growing 14.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.18 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 843,000 bpd, up 1.1 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 229,000 bpd and Iran fifth with 216,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China, importing virtually all its fossil fuels.
