Tokyo, January 29 (QNA) - The Kuwaiti government said on Friday that Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan fell 20.9 % in December from a year earlier to 9.67 million barrels, or 312,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first decline in two months . Kuwait supplied 7.7 % of nation''s crude oil in December, compared with 9.5 % in the same month of last year and 9.2 % in November, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said in a preliminary report carried by KUNA. Japan is Kuwait''s largest oil buyer with accounting for 20 percent of its total crude exports. For the full 2009, Kuwait''s crude shipments to Japan stood at 111.33 million barrels (305,000 bpd), down 4.4 % from the previous year. Japan''s overall imports of crude oil in the reporting month fell 2.6 % year-on-year to 125.72 million barrels (4.11 million bpd) for the 15 consecutive month of drop. Shipments from the Middle East edged up 0.2 % to 115.39 million barrels (3.72 million bpd), and accounted for 91.8 % of the total, up 2.6 percentage points from a year before. Saudi Arabia remained Japan''s biggest oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom shrinking 3.2 % from a year earlier to 36.32 million barrels (1.17 million bpd), followed by the United Arab Emirates with 26.73 million barrels (851,000 bpd), up 2.9 %. Iran ranked third, with shipments growing 3.9 % to 16.27 million barrels (525,000 bpd). Resources-poor Japan is the world''s third-largest oil consumer after the US and China, and it relies on crude oil imports for about 50 percent of its energy needs. Shipments of direct-deal, whose prices are based on the average spot price of Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia, account for about 80 % of Japan''s crude imports.(QNA)