China\'s crude oil imports up 3.7%

China's crude oil imports rose 3.7 percent in April from a year earlier to 23.08 million tons, or 5.64 million barrels a day (bpd), according to latest data released by the Chinese government. Imports also edged up 0.1 percent from March's 23.05 million tons (5.45 million bpd), the General Administration of Customs said on its Website. In the first four months of this year, China imported 92.05 million tons (5.63 million bpd), down 0.9 percent from the same period of 2012. China could overtake the US as the world's largest oil importer in 2015, earlier than expected, the state-owned China Daily reported earlier this year. China's increasing dependence on imported oil has threatened the country's energy security, the newspaper said, adding that the dependence is expected to reach 59.4 percent in 2013, up from 56.6 percent last year.