Kuwait’s May crude oil exports to Japan up 15.9%

Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan in May jumped 15.9 percent from a year earlier to 6.43 million barrels, or 207,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the sixth month in a row, government data showed Friday.

Kuwait was Japan’s No.3 oil provider last month, supplying 8.5 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 6.9 percent in the same month of 2022, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports of crude oil fell 6.0 percent year-on-year to 2.45 million bpd, down for the fourth straight month. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 97.0 percent of the total, up 2.5 percentage points from the year before.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained in the top spot, although imports from the country slid 9.0 percent from a year earlier to 1.06 million bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 946,000 bpd, up 8.3 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 111,000 bpd and Ecuador fifth with 52,000 bpd, respectively.

Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US.
Source: KUNA