Saudi oil made up 44.3% of Japan’s imports in November

TOKYO: Japan imported 31.49 million barrels of Saudi oil in November 2024, making up 44.3 percent of the total, as reported by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s Agency of Natural Resources and Energy.

Japan imported 71.18 million barrels of oil in November, of which 67.72 million barrels (95.1 percent) came from Arab countries.

Supplies from Arab countries play a vital role in Japan’s energy security. The main suppliers were Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and the Neutral Zone (between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait).

The UAE shipped 27.16 million barrels to Japan, which represented 38.2 percent of the total imports, Kuwait contributed 5.19 million barrels (7.3 percent), and Qatar was responsible for 3.42 million barrels (4.8 percent). The Neutral Zone provided 0.6 percent of Japan’s imports.

Politics and resulting sanctions play a large part in determining the source of Japan’s oil imports. With a ban on imports from Iran and Russia, the rest of Japan’s oil imports in November came from Central and South America (1.8 percent), the United States (1.7 percent), Oceania (0.9 percent) and Southeast Asia (0.4 percent).

• This article originally appeared on Arab News Japan