Independent Chinese refineries increased its crude oil imports from Iran last month as the government issued a new batch of import quotas. Total crude imports were up by almost 40 percent from October to an average of 600,000 bpd, Bloomberg reported , citing data from Kpler. The new quotas were issued in mid-October. What follows now, however, will be a slowdown in imports from all sources as China tightens restrictions in response to the Omicron variant and as Beijing continues to crack down on independent refiners. An effort to curb pollution ahead of the Winter Olympics will also affect imports negatively, as will the Lunar New Year holiday when demand declines. Chinese imports in March 2022 are set to be around 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd). This would be about 1 million bpd lower than the crude oil imports in March this year, according to estimates from consultants […]