Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan in October hit an 18-month high of 8.38 million barrels, or 270,000 barrels per day (bpd), government data showed Tuesday.
The Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report that Kuwait’s oil bound for Japan surged 56.3 percent from a year earlier, and the monthly volume was the biggest since April 2020, when it recorded 9.57 million barrels (319,000 bpd).
Kuwait overtook Qatar to become Japan’s third-biggest oil provider last month, supplying 11.5 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports.
Saudi Arabia returned to be Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, although imports from the kingdom declined 7.9 percent from the year before to 884,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 824,000 bpd, up 16.9 percent. Russia ranked fourth with 166,000 bpd and Qatar fifth with 80,000 bpd.
Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in October grew 4.0 percent from a year earlier to 2.35 million bpd for the third straight monthly expansion. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 89.3 percent of the total, down 0.9 percentage points from the same month of last year.
Japan is the world’s-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US.
Source: Kuwait News Agency