By KUNA
Tokyo : Japan’s crude oil imports from Kuwait went down 1.2 percent in November from a year earlier to 9.15 million barrels but increased 10.3 percent from the previous month, according to the latest data released by a government agency.
Kuwait provided 7.0 percent of nation’s crude oil in the reporting month, compared with 6.4 percent in October and 7.5 percent in the same month of last year, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said in a preliminary report.
Japan is Kuwait’s largest oil buyer.
Japan’s overall imports of crude oil rose 7.0 percent in October from a year earlier to 131.45 million barrels for the second straight month of increase, with imports from the Middle East accounting for 84.3 percent of the total, down 5.1 percentage points from the year before and fell 3.2 percent from October for the sixth consecutive month of decline.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s biggest oil supplier, and imports from the country jumped 12.4 percent from a year earlier to 40.38 million barrels, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 24.30 million barrels, down 24.0 percent. Iran became third, with imports soaring 29.7 percent to 19.43 million barrels. Qatar ranked fourth with 12.63 million barrels, down 10.9 percent.
Japan has almost no oil reserves of its own and relies on crude oil imports for about 50 percent of its energy needs. The country is the world’s third-largest oil consumer after the US and China.
Japan imports oil through long-term contracts and direct-dealing transactions between Japanese distributors and oil-producing nations.