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Kuwait's December crude oil exports to Japan up 19.4 Pct

TOKYO, Jan 31 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan in December jumped 19.4 percent from a year earlier to 8.11 million barrels, or 262,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first increase in four months, government data showed Tuesday.
As Japan's third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.8 percent of its total crude imports, compared with 7.4 percent in the same month of last year, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report. For the whole of 2022, Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan stood at 221,000 bpd, up 5.9 percent from the previous year, and took up 8.1 percent of total Japanese crude imports.
Japan's overall imports of crude oil in December edged down 0.3 percent year-on-year to 2.96 million bpd, down for the second month in a row. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 93.2 percent of the total, down 2.0 percentage points from the year before.
By country, Saudi Arabia was in the top spot, although imports from the kingdom declined 5.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.21 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 1.08 million bpd, down 1.7 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 127,000 bpd and the US fifth with 119,000 bpd, respectively. For the full year 2022, Japan's crude oil imports rose 9.7 percent to 2.73 million bpd. Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US. (end) mk.aa