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Dubai: Japan was the biggest buyer of Middle East crude oil last year, taking a third of Saudi Arabia's exports and two-thirds of shipments from the United Arab Emirates, OPEC said in a report.
Asia's largest economy bought 2.21 million barrels a day of Saudi crude last year, or 32 percent of the kingdom's overall exports of 6.96 million barrels a day, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its Annual Statistical Bulletin. The rest of Asia took about 26 percent of Saudi crude exports, the U.S. 22 percent and Europe 12 percent.
With no domestic production of its own, Japan is vulnerable to price increases and reliant on deliveries of oil, most of which it gets from the Middle East.
Last year, Japan bought 1.58 million barrels a day from the United Arab Emirates, or 67 percent of that nation's exports; 450,000 barrels a day, or 18 percent of Iran's crude oil exports; 437,000 barrels a day, or 71 percent of Qatar's exports; and 296,000 barrels a day, or 18 percent of Kuwait's crude exports, the OPEC report said.
Japan's oil imports totaled 4 million barrels a day in 2007, down from 4.1 million barrels a day in 2006, OPEC said.
Japan accounted for 21 percent of imports of crude from all OPEC nations last year. Other Asia-Pacific region countries accounted for 24 percent, Western Europe 18 percent and the U.S. 26 percent.
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