Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan jumped 19.2 percent in July from a year earlier to 7.06 million barrels, or 228,000 barrels per day (bpd), up for the third straight month, government data showed.

Kuwait News Agency quoted the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency as saying, "As Japan's fourth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 6.8 percent of the Asian nation's total crude imports."

Japan's overall imports of crude oil grew 6.5 percent year-on-year to 3.35 million bpd for the first expansion in three months. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 84.5 percent of the total, up 0.9 percentage points from the year before.