Taiwan, which imports more than 99 percent of its crude oil needs, increased purchases of the fuel last month after demand for refined products improved in the previous month.
Shipments rose 15.6 percent from a year earlier to 29.22 million barrels, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday, while last month’s crude oil bill fell 37.9 percent to US$2.038 billion, the ministry said in a statement.
The average price of Taiwan’s crude imports declined 46.3 percent to US$69.7 a barrel, the ministry said.
CONSUMPTION
Taiwan’s energy consumption declined for the 12th straight month in June because of reduced electricity demand from manufacturers amid the global recession.
Consumption of coal, petroleum, gas, thermal energy and electricity dropped 4.8 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 10 million kiloliters of oil, or about 2.1 million barrels a day, the Bureau of Energy said in a report on Thursday.
Power consumption fell 10 percent to 19.2 billion kilowatt-hours, with demand from industrial companies 12 percent lower than a year earlier.
GAS
Natural gas use dropped 2.1 percent to 96.9 million cubic meters and coal consumption declined 4.8 percent to 5.32 million metric tonnes.
Use of petroleum products climbed 0.8 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 4.34 million kiloliters of oil in June, the energy bureau said.
Utilization rates at crude oil distillation units operated by Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) and CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), the nation’s two oil refiners, fell to 76 percent in June from 84 percent in May, the energy bureau said. The units separate crude oil into different oil products and form the main part of a refinery.
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