Japan's oil imports up 6% in March

Japanese crude oil imports increased 6.4% in March from a year earlier to 125.11 million barrels, the first growth in two months, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said. Oil shipments from the Middle East accounted for 88.9% of total imports, down 1.2 percentage points from a year before. Output of petroleum products fell 2.4% to 17.51 million kiloliters for the second straight month, while sales of petroleum products were up 0.3% to 17.74 million kiloliters for the third straight monthly growth. (May 3, 2010)