Quenching China's thirst for oil
(chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2007-06-19 17:49 In the first five months this year, China's net oil import roared to 65.83 million tons, an increase of 11.5 percent from the same period last year. At the same time, China produced 77.51 million tons of oil, a 1.7 percent rise year-on-year.
Customs statistics show that from January to May, China imported 67.43 million tons of crude oil, up 9.6 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, it exported 1.6 million tons, down 36.6 percent.
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An analyst from China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation said the rapid economic growth, especially the booming crude-oil processing industry, led to the surging demand for oil. And China imposed a five percent tax on oil exports, which is the major reason for the significant decrease of oil exports.
From January to May this year, in terms of oil products, China imported a total of 14.97 million tons, an increase of 4.5 percent year-on-year, and it exported 6.47 million tons, a 22.2 percent increase. Its net import of oil products was 8.32 million tons, dropping 6 percent from the same period last year.
In May, China imported 3.17 million tons of oil products and exported 1.22 million tons, with a net import of 1.95 million tons.
The increase of oil product exports was driven by an increasing number of new oil refineries and comparative higher international prices of oil products. The historical high prices of petroleum and naphtha in the Asian markets also led to the export increase.
Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that China produced 77.51 million tons of crude oil in the first five months this year, an increase of 1.7 percent year-on-year. And in May, the oil output reached 16.06 million tons, up 2 percent year-on-year.
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