Kuwaiti delegation partakes in INTOSAI's meeting in Japan

TOKYO: Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan in May surged 22.7 percent from a year earlier to 7.72 million barrels, or 249,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the fourth straight month, government data showed yesterday. As Japan's fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.2 percent of the East Asian nation's total crude imports, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report. Japan's overall imports of crude oil increased 2.1 percent year-on-year to 3.04 million bpd for the first expansion in three months.

Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 87.2 percent of the total, down 2.7 percentage points from the year before. The United Arab Emirates became Japan's largest oil supplier, with imports from the country jumping 66.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.03 million bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 986,000 bpd, down 13.2 percent. Qatar ranked third with 252,000 bpd and Russia fifth with 141,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after the US and China, importing virtually all its fossil fuels.

INTOSAI's meeting

In other news, a Kuwaiti Audit Bureau delegation took part in a committee meeting of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions to examine audit bureaus' needs. Sheikha Al-Zuwawi, a member of the delegation headed by the acting chairman Adel Al-Saraawi, said yesterday that they had taken part in the annual meeting of the Capacity Building Committee, in line with the 2016-2020 strategy to upgrade capacities of the bureau and its personnel. The bureau is seeking to benefit from expertise of pioneering bureaus, experts and advisors, she added.

Moreover, the CBC meeting aimed at specifying challenges and prospects for overhauling potentials and facilitating solutions, Sheikha Al-Zuwawi added, indicating the approach to encourage donations for INTOSAI. The Kuwaiti delegation includes the director general of the State Audit Bureau chairman office Fawzia Al-Enezi, expert at the technical office Iman Al-Huwaidi, chief auditor Sheikha Al-Zuwawi and assistant auditor Dalal Al-Jabri. The three-day meeting, which also involves INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation Steering Committee, is scheduled to conclude today. The CBC is ANTOSAI's right arm in the field of updating professional potentials and capacities for personnel serving in the auditing sector. - KUNA