(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan grew 6.5 percent in July from a year earlier to 6.45 million barrels, or 208,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the fourth straight month, up for the third straight month, government data showed Monday.
As Japan's fifth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 6.1 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 rose 10.9 percent year-on-year to 3.43 million bpd for the first increase in two months. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 83.9 percent of the total, down 1.1 percentage points from a year before.
Saudi Arabia returned to Japan's No.1 oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom expanding 7.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.13 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 1.06 million bpd, up 28.9 percent. Russia ranked third with 239,000 bpd and Qatar fourth with 236,000 bpd, respectively.
Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China, importing virtually all its fossil fuels.
Last month, Japan's second-biggest oil wholesaler Idemitsu Kosan Co. announced that it has agreed to buy a 33.24 percent stake in the nation's No. 5 oil wholesaler Showa Shell Sekiyu from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The deal is expected to narrow the market share gap between Idemitsu and industry leader JX Nippon Oil & Energy, and to help Idemitsu promote overseas investment, such as the joint Vietnamese refinery project with Kuwait.
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