OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2013. Taiwan, which imports more than 99% of its crude oil needs, imported 22.47 million barrels of crude oil in May this year, down 16.7% compared with the same period of last year, according to statistics released by the Bureau of Energy of the island.

In May, the island's crude oil import volume decreased 13.0% from Apr this year.

The island imported 211,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran last month, much less than the 1.82 million barrels it imported in Apr 2013.

CPC Corp, a state owned petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan and the core of the Taiwanese petrochemicals industry, and Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Taiwan's only publicly traded oil refiner, processed a total of 4.1 million kiloliters of crude oil in May, reflecting a growth of 4.26% year on year.

Capacity utilization for the island's refiners was at 66.08% in the month, up from the 64.75% realized in Apr.