China's refinery crude throughput rose 5.1% year on year to 52.1 million mt, or 12.73 million b/d in April, a record high on barrel per day basis, preliminary data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

China will increase tariffs on US LNG imports to 25% from 10% effective from June 1, the State Council under the Finance Ministry said in a statement late Monday, but it left out US crude imports from its current tariff lists.

Imports last month were 43.73 million tonnes, equal to 10.64 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

No liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels that left the United States in March and April have gone to China, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data shows, as the trade war between the two nations escalates.

Iraq is close to signing a $53 billion, 30-year energy agreement with Exxon Mobil and PetroChina,

China's crude oil imports from Iran, the March volume rose 6.2% from February on a barrels-per-day basis, despite dropping by a quarter from the same month of last year.

PAO NOVATEK (“NOVATEK”) announced today at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Company Ltd (“CNODC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (“CNPC”), has signed a binding agreement to enter the Arctic LNG 2 project.

PAO NOVATEK (“NOVATEK”) announced today at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Company Ltd (“CNODC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (“CNPC”), has signed a binding agreement to enter the Arctic LNG 2 project.

China is resolutely opposed to the United States enforcing unilateral sanctions or “long armed jurisdiction”, Geng Shuang, a ministry spokesman, told a daily news briefing.

ExxonMobil said that it signed a sales and purchase agreement with Zhejiang Provincial Energy Group for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply. Under the agreement, Zhejiang Energy is expected to receive 1 million metric tons per annum of LNG over 20 years.