Kuwait’s May crude oil exports to Japan down 15.4 percent

Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan in May declined 15.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.44 million barrels, or 175,000 barrels per day (bpd), down for the eighth consecutive month, government data showed Friday. Kuwait was Japan's third oil provider last month, supplying 8.3 percent of the Asian nation's total crude imports, compared with 8.5 percent in the same month of 2023, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report. Japan's overall imports of crude oil slid 13.8 percent year-on-year to 2.11 million bpd in May, down for the sixth month in a row. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 95.3 percent of the total, down 1.7 percentage points from the year before. The UAE remained in the top spot, but imports from the country fell 8.2 percent from a year earlier to 974,000 bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 758,000 bpd, down 19.8 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 88,000 bpd and the US fifth with 68,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world's third biggest oil consum er after China and the US. Source: Kuwait News Agency