South Korea's crude oil importsrose 3.0 percent in December from a year earlier to 96.8 millionbarrels, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industryand Energy showed on Monday.Final data will be released later this month by state-runKorea National Oil Corp (KNOC).Details of preliminary imports and previous actual figuresare as follows:(In millions of barrels) Dec 2017 Nov 2017* Dec 2016* Crude Oil 96.894.799.8 * Actual import figuresNote: The ministry does not break down imports by country oforigin. South Korea's total crude imports in November increased3.3 percent to 94.7 million barrels year-on-year, according toKNOC data last month. (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Kim Coghill)Read full news