GENERAL

Japanese Spot Purchases at Record Level in First Quarter 

Japan's purchases of spot oil have continued to climb in the first quarter of the year, reaching a record 1,560,000 b/d in March or nearly 40% of total crude imports. For the first quarter as a whole spot purchases represented over 32% of Japanese imports, averaging some 1.3mn b/d.

The following table shows the growth of Japanese spot oil imports since 1981:

 Year Spot Imports % of Total Imports (thousand b/d) 1981...