China has issued the first round of crude oil quotas for next year, and it is 18 percent higher than the respective round for 2019, Reuters has reported , citing unnamed sources in the know. At 122.59 million tons, the first 2021 quota batch equals almost 900 million barrels, based on a conversion factor of 7.33 barrels per one metric ton of crude. According to the report, China had announced earlier it would increase the oil import quotas for independent refiners by 20 percent next year, to a total of 243 million tons. China has been buying oil at record rates this year after a short lull during its lockdown in the spring. The country’s refiners took advantage of historically low prices to stock up, and so did the government, filling up its strategic oil reserve. Yet the rate of imports is slowing down first, because independent refiners began […]