Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan rose 11.7 percent in August from a year earlier to 7.60 million barrels, or 245,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first increase in five months, government data showed Tuesday.
The volume of shipments from Kuwait to Japan hit the highest level since March, when the Gulf state exported there 318,000 bpd. In August, as Japan's fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 7.3 percent of the Asian nation's total crude imports, compared with 6.4 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 August fell 2.6 percent year-on-year to 103.91 million barrels (3.35 million bpd) for the sixth straight monthly decline. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 87.7 percent of the total, up 4.0 percentage points from a year before.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan's No.1 oil supplier, though imports from the kingdom plunged 16.3 percent on the year to 980,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 915,000 bpd, up 47.7 percent. Qatar ranked third with 424,000 bpd and Iran fifth with 201,000 bpd, respectively.
Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China.