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Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan rose 11.7% in August from a year earlier to 7.6mn barrels, or 245,000 barrels per day (bpd), government data showed on Tuesday.
The increase of exports from Kuwait to Japan is the first in five months when shipments hit the highest level since March, when the Gulf state exported 318,000 bpd.
In August, as Japan’s fourth biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 7.3% of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 6.4 % in the same month last year, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.
Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in August fell 2.6% year-on-year to 103.91mn barrels (3.35mn bpd) for the sixth straight monthly decline. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 87.7% of the total- up 4% points from a year before.
Saudi Arabia remains Japan’s biggest oil supplier, though imports from the kingdom plunged 16.3% on the year to 980,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 915,000 bpd- 47.7%, Qatar ranked third with 424,000 bpd and Iran- fifth with 201,000 bpd.
Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China.Â
