S.Korea's December Crude Imports up 21.1 % y/y

 South Korea's crude oil imports in December rose 21.1 percent from a year earlier to 97.9 million barrels, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed on Friday.

The final data will be released later in the month by state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC).

Details of preliminary imports and previous actual figures are as follows:
                                (in millions of barrels)
                       Dec 2015      Nov 2015*         Dec 2014*
    Crude Oil              97.9          81.7              80.8
 
    *Actual import figures
    * Note: The ministry did not break down imports by country of origin. South Korea's total crude imports in November fell 1.5 percent year-on-year, according to KNOC data last month.

 (Reporting by Rebecca Jang; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)