TOKYO: Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan fell 18.1 percent in August from a year earlier to 3.84 million barrels, or 124,000 barrels per day (bpd), down for the 11th consecutive month, government data showed Monday. As Japan’s third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 5.5 percent of the Asian nation’s total crude imports, compared with 6.0 percent in the same month of last year, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in August shrank 9.5 percent year-on-year to 2.26 million bpd, down for the ninth month in a row. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 94.8 percent of the total, up 0.2 percentage points from the year before.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained in the top spot, although imports from the country slid 10.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.02 million bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 876,000 bpd, down 2.6 percent. The US ranked fourth with 75,000 bpd and Qatar fifth with 72,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world’s third-biggest oil consumer after China and the US. — KUNA