China retains lead position in importing Oman Crude

Business Sunday 23/October/2016 18:04 PM
By: Times News Service
China retains lead position in importing Oman Crude

Muscat: China retained its top position as the leading importer of Oman Crude by purchasing as much as 180.99 million barrels from the Sultanate in the first nine months of 2016. This constitutes 74.97 per cent of Oman’s 241.41 million barrel crude oil exports during January-September period of 2016, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) on Sunday.
In 2015, China was the top importer of Oman Crude, with imports of 237.56 million barrels, out of the Sultanate’s total exports of 308.14 million barrels.
The Sultanate’s total crude oil exports grew by 3.8 per cent to 241.41 million barrels in January-September period of 2016, compared to 232.52 million barrels for the same period last year.
However, the average price of Oman Crude in international markets plunged by 36 per cent to $38.3 per barrel in the first nine months of 2016, from $59.8 a barrel during the same period last year, according to the NCSI data. As a result, the country’s net oil revenues tumbled by 43.6 per cent to OMR2,126 million during the January-August period, against OMR3,770.4 million in the same period of 2015.
Taiwan (14.84 million barrels), the United States (12.92 million barrels), Japan (11.09 million barrels) and South Korea (10.11 million barrels) followed China as leading importers of Oman Crude. Other countries importing Oman Crude in the first nine months included Singapore, India and Thailand.
Meanwhile, the country’s total crude oil and condensate production grew by 2.9 per cent to 274.89 million barrels (1,003,200 barrels per day) in the first nine months of this year, against 267.06 million barrels during the same period in 2015.