The United Arab Emirates has become the second largest crude exporter to Japan after its exports reached 25,089mn barrels in December last year making up 22.8% of total Japanese oil imports.
In a statement, the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said that the UAE came in second after Saudi Arabia.
However, UAE’s market share of crude exports to Japan decreased from 2013, when it stood at 23% according to data cited by Bloomberg.
In 2014 Arab oil accounted for 73.6% of Japan’s total oil imports, which was estimated at 110,135mn barrels.
Three quarters of the Asian country’s crude oil products came from the GCC countries, Iraq, Sudan and Libya.
Japan is in a-three-year agreement with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to provide crude oil storage for 6.3mn barrels for each of the Gulf producers.
Under the deal it has a priority to purchase the oil in the event of a serious supply disruption.
