As refiners had slashed their crude throughput in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Japan's crude imports dropped 25 percent year on year to 2.28 million b/d in May, the lowest for the month in 53 years. The May crude imports also dropped 17.3 percent from April as refiners had reduced their crude throughput by 25.6 percent year on year and 19.9 percent month on month to 2.07 million b/d.
The Japanese crude imports from its top five crude suppliers (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Russia) all fell year on year in May, when the imports from the suppliers accounted for 94.1 percent of the total supply in the month.
Japan's Saudi crude imports slid 5.5 percent year on year to 931,733 b/d in May. Its crude imports from the UAE fell 28.9 percent from a year ago to 729,935 b/d. Crude imports from Kuwait slipped 3.2 percent on the year to 241,270 b/d in May. Crude from Qatar plummeted 39.3 percent year on year to 153,143 b/d while Russian crude imports dropped 34.7 percent from a year ago to 91,837 b/d.
