Doha, July 03 (QNA) - Qatar is now the top GCC supplier of ‘petroleum gases’ to Japan, Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) said in a report. Petroleum gases comprise LNG, liquefied propane and butane. Japan’s trade with Qatar jumped 50.4% to $28.2bn in 2008 compared with the previous year, Jetro said yesterday. The bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $18.8bn in 2007, the Gulf Times daily reported today. Japan’s imports from Qatar surged 54.8% to $26.2bn last year, Jetro said. Japan lifted more crude oil and petroleum gas from Qatar last year. The value of imports from Qatar has gone up also because of the ‘steep increase’ in the price of crude oil and petroleum gases. Qatar was Japan’s 4th largest supplier of crude oil with a value of $17bn in 2008. Qatar was also Japan’s third largest supplier of petroleum gases with a value of $8.1bn last year. This indicates a 65.1% increase compared with 2007. Qatar was Japan’s second largest source of propane and butane gases and the fourth largest source of natural gas in the world.   
Japan’s other major imports from Qatar were methanol and urea. Japan’s methanol imports from Qatar increased to $32mn last year, up 144% on 2007. Japan’s exports to Qatar stood at $2bn last year, up 9.1% on 2007, Jetro said. Qatar was Japan’s second largest market for heat exchange units. Japan exported heat exchange units worth $80.4mn to Qatar last year, up 164.3% on 2007. Another major Japanese export item to Qatar was electric voltage conductor. Qatar was Japan’s third largest market for electric voltage conductors. The export of this item had increased by 81.4% to $77.2mn last year. However, Japan’s export of nickel alloy pipes to Qatar declined by 13.8% to $129.7mn last year, Jetro said without citing the reason. Qatar used to be Japan’s top market for nickel alloy pipes. Jetro said Japan’s exports to the six-nation GCC bloc increased by 28.4% to $27.6bn in 2008. Japanese imports from the Gulf countries increased by 46.3% to $144.2bn. Jetro said 75% of Japan’s crude oil requirements were met by the Gulf countries last year. The value of Japanese crude oil imports from the Gulf countries surged by 49.5% and reached $114.9bn last year. Japan imported a total of 1125.7mn barrels of crude oils from the six Gulf countries last year, at an average price of $102.04 per barrel. The average price of crude oil last year was 48% higher than in 2007. Jetro said 82% of the total exports from Japan to the GCC region comprised machinery and equipment, which saw an increase of 32.8% to $22.5bn. (QNA)