China's crude oil imports up 15.2 pct

TOKYO, July 16 (KUNA) -- China's crude oil imports in June grew 15.2 percent from a year earlier to 39.58 million tons, or 9.67 million barrels a day (mbpd), government data showed Tuesday.
Volume also increased 1.7 percent on daily basis from May's shipments of 9.52 mbpd, the General Administration of Customs said. Crude oil imports by the world's largest oil importer in the first half of this year rose 8.8 percent from the same period of 2018 to 9.91 mbpd.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, over 60 percent of China's oil comes from imports. Although crude imports are dominated by state-run giants Sinopec; China National Petroleum Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the country gave private refineries the green light to directly import crude in 2015 as the government tried to attract private capital into the largely monopolized sector. In 2018, the quota for non-state crude oil imports rose to 142 million tons, 55 percent higher than that for 2017, the report added. (end) mk.hb