TOKYO, Aug 31 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports to China jumped 495.4 percent in July from a year earlier to 134,300 tons, overtaking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as its top LPG supplier, the customs data showed.

Kuwait supplied 52.2 percent of China's total LPG imports in the reporting month, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs. The UAE accounted for 16.8 percent with 43,100 tons, while Iran became third with 25,000 tons.

China's overall imports of LPG in July rose 19.5 percent year-on-year to 257,200 tons. China is the world's third-largest LPG consumer after the US and Japan.

Kuwait's January-July shipments to the nation hit 359,500 tons, also ranked first and captured 23.0 percent of China's total LPG imports. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar were also leading exporters to China, which bought 1.51 million tons in the first seven months of 2008, down 37.8 percent from the same period of last year.

Reflecting its steady growth in the Asia's largest energy market, in a related move, Kuwaiti crude oil shipments to China in July reached 545,000 tons, equivalent to around 128,000 barrels a day (bpd), increased seven-fold from 2004.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which established a representative office in Beijing in 2005, has set a China-bound export target of 500,000 bpd by 2015, the state-run oil firm has said earlier this year.

According to KPC, a 300,000-bpd refinery in southern China is expected to be on-stream by 2012. KPC's international refining and market arm Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) has formed a joint venture with Sinopec Corp., Asia's biggest oil refiner, to build the USD 8-9 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Guangzhou.

KPC is also promoting a 240,000-bpd refinery project in the coastal city of Quanzhou, eastern China, with nation's fourth-largest oil firm Sinochem Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The planned refinery would start processing Kuwaiti crude as early as 2010.