China’s Iran crude imports jump 50 percent in May Date: Saturday, June 22, 2013 Source: Reuters China’s average daily crude imports from Iran jumped nearly 50 percent in May from the previous month, back around levels before sanctions were slapped on the Middle Eastern country over its disputed nuclear program two years ago. The jump in China’s imports of Iranian crude to 555,557 barrels per day (bpd) came just before the United States renewed the country’s waiver on US sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil revenues. But industry sources with knowledge of China’s crude imports said the surge from Iran may be due to the timings of cargo arrivals and how they were counted by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The sources said China’s two main importers - Sinopec Corp and Zhuhai Zhenrong - do not usually vary their term crude imports widely month-to-month. China, the world’s second biggest oil consumer, bought 2.36 million tons of Iranian crude in May, equivalent to about 555,557 bpd, data from the GAC showed on Friday. That was up 49.5 percent from the 371,500 bpd of Iranian crude that China imported in April, the data showed. The May level rose 6.4 percent from 521,936 bpd a year earlier. China’s imports for the first five months of the year were up about 10 percent from the same period a year ago. The import figures for May and year-to-date contrasted sharply with China’s oil shipments from Iran in 2012, when the intake of Iranian barrels was about 438,448 bpd, down 21 percent versus 2011. China’s total crude imports in May inched up 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.64 million bpd, customs data showed earlier in the month.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 14:38:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015