China, the world's second biggest oil consumer, imported 11 per cent more crude oil at 90.53 million tons in the first half of 2008 than a year earlier, the customs administration said.
The imported crude was valued at $64.98 billion, up 85.8 per cent, as oil prices in the international market skyrocketed with import prices hitting a record high of $849.10 per ton in June, the General Administration of Customs said.
Angola, Saudi Arabia and Iran were the top three oil suppliers to China, which also imported 21.01 million tons of refined oil products in the first half, a 16.4 per cent year-on-year rise, state-run Xinhua news agency said quoting the administration.
China exported 2.37 million tons of crude and 7.88 million tons of refined products, a 30.6 per cent jump and 0.3 per cent decline, respectively, from a year earlier, it said.
The administration advised the government to ease the increasingly direct and large impact of oil prices on the economy and to curb oil exports and reform the fuel pricing system gradually to ensure domestic supply.
China had recently raised the prices of gasoline by 16 per cent and diesel by 18 per cent in the first increase in the last eight months and the highest in recent years.
The step brought some relief to oil refineries which, squeezed in between the soaring international oil prices and the relatively low regulated price at home, had suffered huge losses. The country's largest refinery, Sinopec, incurred a loss of more than 20 billion Yuan in its refining business in the first quarter of this year.
The largest oil company, PetroChina saw its net profit plummet by more than 30 per cent in the first three months, with losses in its refining wing being the biggest contributor.
Some refineries had cut back on or stopped processing to avoid more losses, causing market shortage for which government-controlled oil prices in the domestic market was blamed.
"The fuel price rise eased the market shortage to a certain degree but the supply is still strained, as world prices still hover high above the domestic level with room for further rises," the China National Petroleum Corporation said recently.
Export of refined oil would remain suspended, while import was expected to hit a record high this year, the company said without giving specific figures.
China Petrochemical Corporation, the country's largest oil refiner, said it would step up supplies of diesel to filling stations and set no limits to the amount of retailed oil.
