Japan’s oil imports down for 15th straight month

Japanese crude oil imports dropped 2.6% in December 2009 from a year earlier to 125.74 million barrels for the 15th straight monthly fall, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said. Oil shipments from the Middle East accounted for 91.8% of total imports, up 2.6 percentage points, the agency within the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said in a preliminary report. Saudi Arabia continued to be the largest supplier to Japan, exporting 36.29 million barrels, down 3.2%. Meanwhile, domestic output of petroleum products fell 5.1% to 18.14 million kiloliters for the 19th straight month of decline. (January 29, 2010)