Kuwaiti crude oil exports to Japan down 30% in July

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Aug 2008

According to the report released by a Japanese government agency, Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan plunged 30.3% in July from a year earlier to 8.59 million barrels for the second straight monthly decline. The Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in a preliminary report carried by japan's national Kyodo news agency said that Japan is Kuwait's largest oil buyer. Kuwait provided 6.4% of nation's crude oil in the reporting month, compared with 9.2% in the same month of last year and 4.6 percent in June this year.
Japan's overall imports of crude oil in July slipped 0.3 percent year-on-year to 133.58 million barrels, down for the second straight month, with shipments from the Middle East rising 5.9 percent to 120.56 million barrels. Imports from the region accounted for 90.3 percent of the total, up 5.3 percentage points from the year before. The Middle Eastern share went up for the first time in six months.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan's biggest oil supplier and imports from the kingdom slightly fell 2.7 percent from a year earlier to 34.24 million barrels, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 34.15 million barrels, up 8.2 percent. Qatar became third, with imports increasing 6.2 percent to 17.53 million barrels. Iran ranked fourth with 15.82 million barrels, up 13.0%.

Source: Steel Guru