China crude imports from Mideast up 14.4% in January-November: GAC

China imported a combined 118.2m tonnes of crude from the Middle East in the first eleven months of the year, a rise of 14.4% from the same period last year, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed.

The amount accounted for 51.24% of China's total crude imports in the period, up by 3.95 percentage points year on year, GAC data also showed.

The year-on-year growth in crude imports from Iran, Iraq, Oman and Saudi Arabia were 29.3%, 23.6%, 12.3% and 13%, respectively, according to GAC data.

China increased crude imports from the region as the price spread between Brent crude and Dubai crude widened to $5-8/tonne and Chinese refineries’ capacity in processing sour crude enhanced, market sources said.

Sinopec signed a long-term agreement with Iran on purchasing 3m tonnes of South Pars condensate in 2011, C1 reported earlier.

China's crude imports from the Caspian Sea region and South America were 27.1m tonnes and 19.9m tonnes in the January-November period, up by 16.7% and 11.1%, respectively; while the imports from Africa fell by 14.8% to 55.4m tonnes, the data showed.