Petroleum Import and Export in 2005

The crude oil price in the international market continued to
increase constantly in 2005, hitting the historical high time
and again. The high oil price produced profound impacts on the
global oil import and export trade.
   As one of the major oil producers and importers in the world,
China had a further growth in the oil production in 2005. The
demand of oil products had a stable increase and the oil import
and export trade developed considerably. According to
statistical data from the Petroleum and Chemical Industry
Association, the total import and export value of the petroleum
and chemical industry in China reached US$199.46 billion in 2005,
an increase of 25.7% over 2004 and creating another historical
high.
   In the macro environment of high oil price in the
international market, both the import and export amount and the
import and export value of crude oil and oil products in China
increased in 2005. The export value had a drastic growth. The
import and export mode including import sources, export
destinations and product varieties became more rational.


1.
The import growth of crude oil came down and the import
dependence was slightly lower

The rapid growth of the national economy in 2005 continued to
bring about an oil demand expansion in the domestic market and
in turn supported the import amount increase of crude oil. To
avoid risks caused by the high oil price, however, domestic crude
oil dealers reduced the import amount by cutting down their
inventory. The growth of some energy-consuming sectors was
slowed down and oil substitutes such as gasohol made active
application dissemination. Owing to the combination of these
factors, despite an increase in the absolute import amount of
crude oil, the import growth came down in 2005. The import
dependence of crude oil in China in 2005 was therefore reduced
to 39.69%, being 0.57 percentage points lower than 2004 and it
was the first drop in the past 3 years. The import amount of crude
oil in China was 127 million tons in 2005, only an increase of
3.4% over 2004 (much lower than the growth of 34.8% in 2004).


2.
The import value and the average import price of crude oil hit
another historical high

Another prominent feature resulted from the high oil price in
the international market was that both the import value and the
average import price of crude oil hit another historical high.
The import value of crude oil in China reached US$47.86 billion
in 2005, an increase of 41.4% over 2004. It was a drastic
reduction compared with the growth of 71.1% in 2004, but it was
still a high growth. The proportion for the import value of crude
oil in the total import value in China had another increase of
1.2 percentage points and reached 7.2% in 2005. The proportion
in the import value in the petroleum and chemical industry was
increased to 33.4%, being 4.5 percentage points higher than
2004.
   The average import price of crude oil in China was increased
to US$376.6 per ton in 2005, an increase of 36.4% over 2004 and
the average annual growth was 9.5 percentage points higher than
2004. The monthly average import price of crude oil in China was
basically identical to the oil price trend in the international
market.

3.
Import sources of crude oil became more concentrated

The energy diplomatic contacts in China were especially active
in 2005 and an effective support was provided to the
diversification strategy for import sources of crude oil. The
amount of crude oil imported from the Middle East and Africa
continued to increase and the proportion also increased further
to 77.5%, being 3.4 percentage points higher than 2004.
   The amount of crude oil imported from the Middle East reached
59.992 million tons in 2005, an increase of 7.5% over 2004 and
accounting for 47.2% of the total import amount, being 1.8
percentage points higher. The amount of crude oil imported from
the United Arab Emirates increased constantly for 3 consecutive
years and reached 2.568 million tons in 2005, an increase of
91.1% over 2004.
   The output of crude oil in all 11 OPEC (the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries) member countries had an
increase in 2005. The amount of crude oil imported from OPEC
member countries also maintained a growth in China. It reached
52.578 million tons in 2005, an increase of 10.782 million tons
over 2004 and the proportion in the total import amount was also
7.4 percentage points higher than 2004. The growth mainly came
from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Indonesia and Venezuela.
    China imported 38.47 million tons of crude oil from Africa
in 2005, an increase of 9% over 2004. Angola became the second
largest import source for China. The amount of crude oil imported
from Angola was 17.463 million tons in 2005. Other 3 African
countries in the 10 major import sources also had a 2-digit
growth in their export amount of crude oil to China. Owing to
the greater efforts in upstream exploration and development, the
output of crude oil in Libya and Algeria has increased rapidly
in recent years. The import of crude oil from these two African
countries has presented a trend of rapid growth in China. The
unstable political situation in Nigeria has affected the import
of crude oil in China and the amount of crude oil imported from
that country has made some reduction.
   The amount of crude oil imported from Venezuela has increased
rapidly. It is mainly because the government of Venezuela has
paid greater attention to the exchange and cooperation with
China. China imported 1.928 million tons of crude oil from that
country in 2005, an increase of 1.594 million tons over 2004.
The import of crude oil from Argentina has also presented a trend
of rapid growth.
   Due to the vigorous development of the petrochemical industry
in the Asia-Pacific region, its own demand of crude oil has
increased drastically in recent years. The output increase has
also met with some restrictions. The amount of crude oil imported
from that region has therefore presented a trend of drastic
reduction in recent years. China imported 9.684 million tons of
crude oil from that region, a drop of 31% from 2004. The amount
of crude oil imported from Indonesia, however, had a growth of
19.1%.


4.
The proportion of imported heavy and high sulfur-contained crude
oil increased

At a time of high oil price in the international market, the price
difference between light crude oil and heavy crude oil and
between low-sulfur crude oil and high-sulfur crude oil has kept
widening in recent years. The average price difference between
Brent crude oil and Dubai crude oil/Oman crude oil reached US$4.5
per barrel in 2005, an increase of US$0.19 per barrel over 2004.
It has produced a great impact on refineries in various countries.
China has strengthened the capacity expansion and renovation
upgrading of high-sulfur crude oil units and the processing
proportion of heavy and high-sulfur crude oil has increased
constantly. To reduce the import cost of crude oil, while
ensuring the quality improvement of oil products, crude oil
importers have gradually reduced the import amount of light
crude oil and increased the purchase amount of heavy and
high-sulfur crude oil. The change of import sources can also
reflect the increase in the import amount of heav