Kuwait''s crude oil exports to Japan jump 34.3 percent

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

2 Sep 2010

Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan soared 34.3 percent in July from a year earlier to 6.82 million barrels, or 220,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first rise in two months, the government said. Kuwait, the sixth biggest oil provider to Japan in July, supplied 6.1
percent of Japan's crude, compared with 4.6 percent in the same month of last year and 5.1 percent in June, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said in a preliminary report. Japan's overall imports of crude oil rose 1.3 percent year-on-year to 3.58 million bpd for the first growth in two months. Shipments from the Middle East fell 2.3 percent to 3.06 million bpd, and accounted for 85.6 percent of the total, down 3.2 percentage points from the year before. Saudi Arabia seized the top spot, with imports from the kingdom shrinking 23.1 percent from a year earlier to 865,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 756,000 bpd, up 2.3 percent. Iran ranked third, with shipments rising 4.1 percent to 460,000 bpd. Qatar became fourth and Russia fifth. Resources-poor Japan is the world's third-largest oil consumer after the US and China, and it relies on crude oil imports for about 50 percent of its energy needs. Shipments of direct-deal, which prices are based on the average spot price of Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia, account for about 80 percent of Japan's crude imports.

Source: Kuwait News Agency