KUNA reported that Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan fell 56.2% in August from a year earlier to 3.93 million barrels or 127,000 barrels per day for the first drop in 2 months. The Natural Resources and Energy Agency said that Kuwaiti share of Japan's crude oil imports stood at 3.6% last month compared with 8.6% in the same month of last year and 9.4% in July. Japan's overall imports of crude oil in the reporting month shrank 2.5% YoY to 108.63 million barrels for the sixth straight month of decline. Shipments from the Middle East fell 4.8% to 2.90 million barrels per day and accounted for 82.8% of the total down 2.0 percentage points from a year before. Saudi Arabia remained Japan's biggest oil supplier, although imports from the kingdom fell 2.7% from a year earlier to 1.02 million barrels per day followed by the United Arab Emirates with 824,000 barrels per day up 22.1%. Qatar ranked third, with shipments plunging 28.7% to 348,000 barrels per day. Resources poor Japan is the world's third largest oil consumer after the US and China and it relies on crude oil imports for about 50% of its energy needs. Shipments of direct deal which prices are based on the average spot price of Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia.

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