Japan Receives First U.S. Oil Since 2010 Amid Shale Boom
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Japan imported U.S. oil for the first time in four years as companies find ways around a four-decade ban on American exports and the Asian nation seeks to cut its dependence on Middle East suppliers.
Japan, which relies on Saudi Arabia for 33 percent of its supply, imported about 300,000 barrels of oil from the U.S. last month, the first shipments since at least June 2010, according to data from the Ministry of Finance. Cosmo Oil Co. last month received the country’s first cargo of U.S. condensate, a lightly processed form of crude, Katsuhisa Maeda, a Tokyo-based company spokesman, said today.