Arab News Japan

TOKYO: More than three quarters of Japan’s oil imports in November (76.4 percent) came from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with rates of 41.5 percent (32.1 million barrels) and 36.3 percent (28.16 million barrels), respectively, according to data from the Japanese Energy Agency on Friday.

Japan’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia were down from 31.60 million barrels, while imports of UAE crude were down from 33.93 million barrels in the previous month.

Total imports in November amounted to 77.53 million barrels – down from 84.58 million the previous month – at a rate of 2.58 million barrels per day.

From Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the neutral zone (between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), imports amounted to 9.4percent, 5 percent, 1.3 percent, 1.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, which means that Arab oil provided Japan with 95.4% of its oil needs in November, according to the agency, which is part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Japan’s exports from Ecuador, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia came to less than 5 percent of its consumption in November.

The ban on buying Russian and Iranian oil imposed by Japanese companies in compliance with US sanctions continued in November, but Japan still imports Russian natural gas from the Russian Sakhalin region for about 8 percent of its LNG needs under bilateral investment and development treaties that are exempt from Japanese sanctions against Russia.