S Korea's oil product exports surge on growing demand from Asia

South Korea's oil product exports surged 74 percent on-year in April due to growing demand from Asian nations, a government report showed Thursday.


Overseas shipments of oil products, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, naphtha and Bunker-C oil, reached 5.15 billion U.S. dollars in April, up 74 percent from 2.96 billion dollars a year earlier, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement.


The volume of total shipments came in at 40.39 million barrels in April, up 22.7 percent from 32.91 million barrels the previous year, according to the ministry.


The April's sharp gains came after the March 11 earthquake in Japan disrupted operations of some oil refiners in the island nation, resulting in surging demand from Japan as well as other Asian countries, which had previous imported petroleum products from the nation, the ministry said.


Exports to Japan expanded 149.2 percent on-year to 7.04 million barrels in April, making the nation the second-largest overseas buyer of South Korean refined oil after Singapore.


Refined petroleum products shipped to Singapore soared 183.8 percent on-year to 7.8 million barrels in April, with exports to China and India growing by 12.3 percent and 4.2 percent on-year respectively.


Imports of crude oil reached 8.68 billion dollars in April, up 52.8 percent from 5.68 billion dollars a year earlier, with the volume of imports rising 8.2 percent on-year.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)