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Japan: Kuwait oil imports down 26% in November

27-12-2024

Japanese government data showed on Friday that crude oil imports from Kuwait fell 26 percent year-on-year in November to 5.18 million barrels (173,000 barrels per day), marking the 14th straight month of decline. The Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report that Kuwait, Japan's third-largest oil supplier, exported about 7.3 percent of its total crude imports, compared with about 9 percent in the same month last year. It added that Japan's total crude oil imports in November fell for the 12th straight month by 8.6 percent year-on-year to 2.37 million barrels per day, while imports from the Middle East accounted for 95.1 percent of the total, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier. Saudi Arabia returned to the top spot despite a 5.3 percent decline in its imports from the previous year to 1.05 million barrels per day, followed by the UAE with shipments of 904,000 barrels per day, down by about 7.2 percent, while Qatar ranked fourth with shipments of 114,000 barrels per day, compared to 43,000 barrels per day from Ecuador, which ranked fifth. Japan is the third largest oil consumer in the world after China and the United States.