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China/Japan set 2000 Daqing sales at 4 mln tonnes

SINGAPORE: China and Japan have set the annual Daqing crude sale volume at four million tonnes for calendar 2000, industry sources said on Monday. "We have set it at four million tonnes for 2000, Japan has accepted. We agreed on the volume last Friday," a source said.

The volume agreed on is in line with Japanese term buyers' final request, about one million tonnes less than the amount purchased in 1999.

The amount to be sold this year would be well below the six to eight million tonnes of crude China was contracted to sell between 1996 to 2000 under a bilateral government agreement.

The reduction in volume did not raise industry eyebrows as most had expected to Japan to cut back its imports after the two sides went through a tedious process to agree on a new price.

Most of the Daqing crude Japan buys is burned in thermal power plants, and traders say this source of demand is on a downtrend.-Reuters