Japan's early June crude imports dip, May gasoline imports also drop

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – Japan's crude oil imports in the first ten days of June were down 12% from the final 10 days of May, at at 20.428 million barrels, according to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance.

However, the June figure was up 185% from the first ten days in May, however, when just 7.164 million barrels were brought into the country.

The price paid per barrel in the first 10 days of June was also 2.4% higher from the final 10 days of May, at JPY 46,498 per kilolitre ($66.88/b).

Petroleum Association Japan data showed crude oil stocks increased by 2.923 million barrels in the week ending June 5 to 73.579 million, before falling again to 67.907 million in the following week amid rising refinery utilisation rates.

Separate Ministry of Finance data showed gasoline imports during May were down 4.4% from April at 0.523 million barrels per day (bpd), while the reference price dropped 1.5% to $66.19/b.

In comparison to pre-covid levels though, imports of gasoline were 20% higher from May 2019 when inflows were just 0.435 million bpd.

Naphtha imports were also up significantly from 2019 but down on the month, at 26,766 bpd in May this year, compared to 10,184 bpd in May 2019 and 36,520 bpd in April 2021.

Kerosene imports gained 18.6% on the month to 17,100 bpd, also more than six times higher than in May 2019.

Japan's imports of Kerosene have skyrocketed to a rate of more than 44,000 bpd in January-May 2021, which compares to an average of around 16,500 bpd in the whole of 2019.