By KUNA
Tokyo : Japan’s crude oil imports from Kuwait fell 3.2 percent in December from a year earlier to 9.25 million barrels but but edged up 1.1 percent from the previous month, according to the latest data released by the government agency.
Kuwait provided 6.7 percent of nation’s crude oil in the reporting month, compared with 7.2 percent in the same month of last year and 7.0 percent in November, 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 increased 4.1 percent in December from a year earlier to 138.16 million barrels for the third straight month of rise, with imports from the Middle East accounting for 83.1 percent of the total, down 5.5 percentage points from the year before, and dropped 1.2 percent from November for the seventh straight month of decline.
Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s biggest oil supplier, and imports from the kingdom rose 0.8 percent from a year earlier to 36.58 million barrels, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 27.25 million barrels, down 14.8 percent. Iran became third, with imports falling 1.9 percent to 18.12 million barrels. Qatar ranked fourth with 15.90 million barrels, up 12.4 percent.
Japan contains almost no oil reserves of its own, but the nation is the world’s third-largest oil consumer after the US and China. Japanese oil companies procure about 80 percent of their crude oil through direct-dealing transactions.