China Crude Oil Imports May Decline, Says Cnooc’s Fu

(Bloomberg) — China’s oil imports, a driving force behind record prices, have “stabilized” and may decline within three years as government measures to conserve fuel take root, Cnooc Ltd. Chairman Fu Chengyu said.

Shipments will stay near 130 million metric tons a year before dropping, helping global prices ease in the “long term,” Fu, who runs China’s third-biggest oil company, said in a July 18 interview. That prediction contrasts with Titan Petrochemicals Group Ltd., the country’s largest oil-supertanker owner, which forecasts a jump of as much as 15 percent in 2006 imports.

“The policies on energy saving will take three to five years to implement,” Fu said in Beijing. “I feel confident that energy imports won’t be as much as we thought before.”
Bloomberg