BEIJING, Jul. 12, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China's crude oil imports hit 22.27 million metric tons (tonnes) in June 2010, which could be translated into a daily import volume of 5.44 million barrels, renewing the highest monthly record.
The latest statistics released on Saturday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) also show that the country's crude oil imports stood at 117.97 million tonnes in the first half of 2010, up 30.2 percent year on year.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) made a prediction in June that China's crude oil throughput would continue its year-on-year growth in the third quarter in 2010. The IEA forecasts show that non-OECD states would add 925,000 barrels of daily crude oil refining capacity to a total of 38 million barrels a day, in which China would represent some 80 percent of the capacity.
The increasing daily refining capacity is mostly due to operation of new oil refineries, such as PetroChina's Qinzhou refinery, which is to start operation in July with a daily refining capacity of 201,000 barrels.
The Qinzhou refinery will refine crude oil imported from the Middle East and Africa. Energy analysts also say that the expansion of oil storage capacity, both commercial and national, would also boost the country's crude oil imports, especially when the international crude oil prices are in relatively low level because of the worries on the worsening European sovereign debt problems.
According to GAC statistics, China imported some 3.31 million tonnes of product oil in June, compared with 2.15 million tonnes of exports during the same month. (Edited by Qiu Jun, Qiujun@xinhua.org)
