China's imports of crude from the Middle East surged on two-year high price-performance ratio in January, boosting share of the imports to a high level.
The nation imported 11.74-mil mt of crude from the Middle East during January, up 20.7% from the previous month, up 64.14% compared with a year earlier, showed data from the General Administration of Customs. The volume took up 53.86% of the total, up 7 percentage points from the monthly average in 2010.
"It would be cost-efficient for Chinese oil refiners to import crude from the Middle East when the spread between Brent and Dubai crudes reached above US$2.5/bbl," said a refinery source.
C1's record indicated the share of Middle East-origined crude imports was close to 50% in 2008 when Brent-Dubai spread was wide; the spread narrowed in 2009 while keeping widening in 2010.
Price-performance ratio of South American crude also rose in January as WTI crude prices were obviously lower than Brent.
China's crude imports from South America hit 2.12-mil mt in January, up 27.2% on month, surging 48.86% year-on-year, according to the GAC data. The volume accounted for 9.71% of the total, 1.5 percentage points higher than last year's average level.
Crude imports from Africa and Caspian region plunged in January.
