China imported 127 million tons of crude oil in 2005, a 3.3 percent growth year on year with the growth rate down by 31.5 percentage points. It exported 8.07 million tons of crude oil, according to an official with the Foreign Trade Division of the Ministry of Commerce, reports Xinhua on Thursday in Beijing.

China has continued to be the third largest crude oil importer in the world, following the United States and Japan.

In the meantime, of the international trade growth of crude oil, China's import accounted for 10 percent last year dropping from the 30 percent in 2004. This can be attributed to the main reasons including the increase of domestic crude oil output, slowdown of home demand and reduced dependence on imports.

The official said the average price of the country's imports of crude oil was 51.5 US dollars per barrel, 2.8 US dollars lower than the benchmark oil price on the international market, which shows that under the circumstances of the continuous price hike on the international market, Chinese enterprises have gradually felt around measures on how to avoid oil price hike and protect their own interests. It is groundless to say that China pushes up the international oil price.

He said China will keep a stable growth in its crude oil imports. The Ministry of Commerce will pay close attention to the price trend on the international oil market and maintain the security of China's petroleum imports.

By People's Daily Online