31-08-08 Kuwait's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports to China jumped 495.4 % in July from a year earlier to 134,300 tons, overtaking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as its top LPG supplier, the customs data showed.
Kuwait supplied 52.2 % of China's total LPG imports in the reporting month, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs. The UAE accounted for 16.8 % with 43,100 tons, while Iran became third with 25, 000 tons.

China's overall imports of LPG in July rose 19.5 % year-on-year to 257,200 tons. China is the world's third-largest LPG consumer after the US and Japan.
Kuwait's January-July shipments to the nation hit 359,500 tons, also ranked first and captured 23.0 % of China's total LPG imports. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar were also leading exporters to China, which bought 1.51 mm tons in the first seven months of 2008, down 37.8 % from the same period of last year.

Reflecting its steady growth in the Asia's largest energy market, in a related move, Kuwaiti crude oil shipments to China in July reached 545,000 tons, equivalent to around 128,000 bpd, increased seven-fold from 2004.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which established a representative office in Beijing in 2005, has set a China-bound export target of 500,000 bpd by 2015, the state-run oil firm has said earlier this year. According to KPC, a 300,000-bpd refinery in southern China is expected to be on-stream by 2012. KPC's international refining and market arm Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) has formed a joint venture with Sinopec Corp., Asia's biggest oil refiner, to build the $ 8-9 bn refinery and petrochemical complex in Guangzhou.

KPC is also promoting a 240,000-bpd refinery project in the coastal city of Guangzhou, eastern China, with nation's fourth-largest oil firm Sinochem and Royal Dutch Shell.
The planned refinery would start processing Kuwaiti crude as early as 2010.