China’s small, independent refiners are set to raise their crude oil imports again in 2017 on expectations that Beijing will keep their intake quotas steady, market participants said, a move that should help eat up some of the global supply glut. Officials at three independent refineries and an official involved in national import policy said they expected the government to keep next year’s crude oil import quotas for independents unchanged to slightly higher. Called “teapots” due to the small capacities of their plants compared with the big state-run refineries, the independents made up nearly 90 percent of China’s crude oil import growth this year, helping to put the world’s No.2 economy on course to challenge the United States as the top importer. Next year, teapots will contribute 200,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) to China’s crude import growth, out of an overall import rise of 500,000-700,000 bpd, according to estimates […]