Chinese state oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, the world’s largest lifter of Iranian crude by company, has agreed with the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) to buy 240,000 barrels a day in 2011.
Sinopec Corp, Asia’s top refiner and China’s dominant processor of Iranian oil, separately agreed to take 220,000 bpd this year, a volume steady with last year.
“No change in volume, no change in the grades of oil supplies. All is the same as last year,” said the source, referring to the Zhenrong-NIOC agreement.
Zhuhai Zhenrong supplies the bulk of its 240,000-bpd to refineries run by Sinopec Corp and a small amount of roughly 20,000 bpd to PetroChina, China’s second-largest refiner.
In 2010, Iran was China’s No.3 crude supplier after Saudi Arabia and Angola.
In the first 11 months of 2010, China’s oil purchases from Iran were down nearly 430,000 bpd or 9.6 percent compared to the year-earlier period, prompting speculation that China was pursuing a policy to reduce its dependency on Iran.