China remains biggest importer of Omani oil

Business Sunday 15/July/2018 17:23 PM
By: Times News Service
China remains biggest importer of Omani oil

Muscat: China continues to be the top importer of oil from Oman, thanks to the perceived compatibility between the quality of the Sultanate’s crude oil and the needs of Chinese refineries.
Speaking to the Times of Oman, Yu Fulong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Oman, said he expects Omani oil to be used at Chinese refineries for many years to come.
“Oman is one of the principal oil suppliers to China because the quality of Oman’s oil is very good, and most importantly, because it suits the (needs of) Chinese refineries,” he said.
“The channel for this purchase is through the Dubai Mercantile Exchange,” he added. “This way is very steady and precise and we have been working very well with them over the past few years, and we intend to use this channel in the future as well. China’s main exports to the Arab world are electronics and machinery, and its major imports are oil and mining products.”
China imported 83.55 per cent of all of Oman’s oil exports in June 2018, representing a 9.65 per cent increase in exports to the East Asian giant. In total, Oman exported 23.47 million barrels in June 2018, equivalent to a daily export value of 782,540 barrels.
According to data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Oman’s exports of condensate MTBE (methyl-tert-butyl-ether), an additive used in petrol and crude oil, stood at 20,334,100 barrels as of April 2018.
It is a figure that has increased steadily on a monthly basis since January 2014, when China imported 19,473,500 barrels from Oman. Oil imports to China rose sharply between 2009 and 2016, when exports soared from 77.6 million barrels to 251.1 million barrels per annum, with current export numbers continuing to follow that trend.
According to the Observatory for Economic Complexity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, crude petroleum accounted for 47 per cent of all of Oman’s exports in 2016 at a value of US$12.8 billion (OMR4.93 billion), with petroleum gas responsible for 9.8 per cent, with revenue totalling $2.65 billion (OMR1.02 billion). Refined petroleum accounted for 8.2 per cent of exports, equivalent to $2.21 billion (OMR850 million) in revenue.
The NCSI added that Oman had exported 98.54 million barrels of oil at the end of April 2018, compared with 97.499 million barrels in April 2017. China imported about 77.2 million of those barrels this year, compared with 85.01 million barrels last year.
Oman’s total production at the end of April 2018 stood at 116.06 million barrels, compared to 116.1 at the end of April 2017. A total of 354.25 million barrels was produced by Oman in 2017, of which 294.21 million barrels were exported. China imported 226.27 million barrels, making it the largest importer by far, with India far behind in second place with slightly more than 28 million barrels in imports from Oman.