– Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan fell 8.4 percent in July from a year earlier to 6.60 million barrels, or 213,000 barrels per day (bpd), down for the second month in a row, government data showed Wednesday.

As Japan’s fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.1 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 11.2 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 July jumped 25.5 percent year-on-year to 2.62 million bpd, up for the 12th straight month. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 97.7 percent of the total, up 1.4 percentage points from the year before.

The United Arab Emirates returned to be Japan’s No.1 oil supplier, with imports from the country surging 34.0 percent from a year earlier to 1.10 million bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 918,000 bpd, up 25.0 percent. Qatar ranked third with 237,000 bpd and Ecuador fifth with 47,000 bpd, respectively.

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

Source: Kuwait News Agency