Crude imports by China’s independent refiners are expected to slow down in the coming months as several refiners have used up most of their allocation from the first round of import quotas and will need to wait until June for the second round before resuming purchases. Independent refiners need government-allotted quotas to import crude oil. A total of 45.64 million mt of quotas were allocated to 19 independent refineries in the first round in January. The refiners have submitted applications for a second batch of quotas, but the government is only expected to allocate fresh quotas in June leaving the refiners with the option of either reducing throughput or buying barrels from the domestic spot market, market sources said. China’s independent refineries imported a total of 60 million mt (1.2 million b/d) of crude oil in 2016, according to S&P Global Platts estimates. This represented 16% of China’s total […]