KUWAIT: Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan in May rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier to 5.55 million barrels, or 179,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the third month in a row, government data showed Thursday. As Japan's fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 6.9 percent of the 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 grew 7.7 percent year-on-year to 2.60 million bpd, up for the 10th straight month. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 94.5 percent of the total, up 1.6 percentage points from the year before.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) returned to be Japan's No.1 oil supplier, with imports from the country jumping 24.0 percent from a year earlier to 1.17 million bpd, followed by Saudi Arabia with 873,000 bpd, up 5.8 percent. Qatar ranked third with 179,100 bpd and Ecuador fifth with 66,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US.