In 2016 China could become the world leader in oil imports, market participants believe

Almaty. March 31. Silkroadnews - In 2016 China may surpass the United States and become the world leader in oil import, such an opinion was expressed by the vice-president of the Chinese oil trading company Unipec Zhong Fu Liang.

“For the first two months of this year, the crude oil import volume in our country exceeded 8 million barrels per day. We expect the average annual rate to stand at 7.5 million barrels per day. We hope during this period China will overtake the US and become the world leader in the volume of imported crude oil,” he said at the Russia-China Oil and Gas 2016 Forum.

Zhong Fu Liang noted that, despite the slowdown in growth for oil demand in China, Unipec expects the continued rapid growth in imports during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). He estimates that by 2020 the volume of purchases of foreign oil will increase to 9 million barrels a day, with the average annual growth of around 5.5%.

According to him, in 2015 China imported 6.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, while the US imports of crude oil in 2015 stood at 7.4 million barrels per day.

Unipec is one of the largest Chinese companies in the international oil trade field. The company is a subsidiary of the Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec.