Oil exports to China have dropped by 30% in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period last year, despite US$40 billion worth of Chinese investment in Iran’s oil and gas sector, according to a senior Iranian official.
Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noqrehkar Shirazi told Mehr News Agency that: “The volume of Chinese investment in upstream projects is $29 billion,” adding that Beijing had signed contracts worth another $10 billion in petrochemicals, refineries and oil and gas pipeline projects.
He said China has also put forward proposals to participate in building seven new refineries in Iran.
Noqrehkar Shirazi said that Chinese imports of Iranian oil fell in the first half of the year.
“Although Iran is still among the top 10 oil exporters to China, it is the only country which in the first six months of 2010 has seen its exports to China falling,” he said.
“The volume of oil exports to China in the first six months of this year decreased to less than 9.02 million tonnes or 66.12 million barrels. This shows a 30% decrease over the first half of 2009,” he added.
In 2009, China became Iran’s premier trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $21.2 billion against $14.4 billion three years earlier according to the Iranian Central Oil fields Company (ICOC).
