Japan's oil imports from Iran drop 23.7 percent in May

TOKYO: Japan's crude oil imports from Iran in May fell 23.7 percent from a year earlier to 181,892 barrels per day (896,474 kilolitres), data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) showed on Monday.

The significant drop came after Japan took an unusually large volume of nearly 240,000 bpd for May last year, after slashing purchases last April amid uncertainty over whether buyers could get sovereign insurance for tankers carrying Iranian petroleum.