China's crude oil imports last year rose 31% on year to 91.124 million metric tons, General Administration of Customs figures issued Monday show. Imports in December rose 22% from November to 9.337 million tons. And China-based oil traders said imports in 2004 are expected to rise 10 million to 20 million tons from last year, spurred by strong demand from the transportation and manufacturing sectors. They said China's car sales in 2004 are expected to rise by 20% from last year to 5 million units, boosting gasoline consumption. Of the total crude imports last year, 51%, or 46.36 million tons, came from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia supplying 15.18 million tons, up 33% on year. While China continues to rely on the Middle East for the bulk of its crude imports, it is also diversifying its sources, to Africa and Russia. Imports from Russia last year rose 73% to 5.25 million tons. An official with China National Petroleum Corp, which handles most of China's crude imports from Russia, said crude imports from Russia will exceed 6 million tons this year. "Imports (from Russia) will (continue to) come via trains before a crude pipeline is built," he said. Strong crude selling prices prompted Chinese oil companies to export more crude last year, despite the domestic supply shortage. December crude exports rose 22% from November to 1.049 million tons, bringing full-year exports to 8.133 million tons, up 6.1% on year. In 2003, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose an average 19% on year to US$31.04/bbl. China's Daqing crude exports to Japan last year rose 10% on year to 3.6 million tons. Daqing exports in December totaled 458,281 tons, compared with 265,200 tons in November. PetroChina Co. (PTR), which owns and operates Daqing oil field, has temporarily suspended Daqing crude exports to Japan due to a dispute with Japanese traders over volume and prices. Strong Fuel Oil Imports On the oil products front, China's fuel oil imports in December rose 27% from November to 1.75 million tons, suggesting strong demand at independent refineries and power plants. Full-year fuel oil imports rose 58% on year to 22.3 million tons. There appears to be a trend of rising fuel oil imports into eastern China's Shandong provinces, with independent refineries importing more straight-run fuel oil from South Korea as feedstock for blending into diesel. These refineries are getting less crude from Sinopec Corp. (SNP) and having to import fuel oil to maintain their operations, traders said. Of the total fuel oil imports last year, 5.57 million tons came from South Korea, while 4.82 million tons from Singapore. Despite a domestic shortage of gasoline, China's exports of this fuel in December shot up 42% from November to 652,383 tons, mostly term cargoes for Indonesia and Vietnam. Traders say China will continue to export gasoline this year, but in a different manner. "All gasoline exports for Sinopec for 2004 are third party processing deals," said one trader. China's gasoline exports in 2003 rose 23% on year to 7.5 million tons. PIN//Yahoo News