The National Iranian Oil Company’s director for international affairs has aid the country may ink new deals with China to sell it crude oil.

“It is predicted that China’s demand for crude oil imports would be increased in 2012,” Mohsen Qamsari told the Mehr news agency.

He referred to Singapore, China, and the Persian Gulf littoral states as the major destinations for Iranian furnace oil.

Iran has received no call from other countries to cancel or suspend oil imports, the official said.

China’s oil imports from Iran increased by around 50 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period the year before, reaching near 13.5 million tons, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China announced.

According to the report, China imported 650,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day in June, a jump of 53% from May. 

Iran was the third largest oil supplier to China in the first half of 2011, after Saudi Arabia and Angola.

China imported 280,104 tons of naphtha from Iran from January 2011 to June 2011, which shows a 280% rise in comparison to the same period in 2010. Iran is the second leading exporter of naphtha to China.

Iran’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports to China in the first half of 2011 hit 352,130 tons, which is an increase of 72% compared to the same period last year.