Exclusive: China's Unipec to resume U.S. oil purchases after tariff policy change - sources

By Florence Tan and Meng Meng

SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Unipec will resume purchases of U.S. crude oil in October after a two-month halt due to the trade dispute between the world's two largest economies, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The decision to start buying crude oil again from the United States comes after Beijing earlier in August excluded it from its import tariff list.

A source with knowledge of the matter said Unipec will "buy some U.S. crude, loading in October, following the change in Beijing's policy."

"Unipec's imports shrunk when China retaliated by putting crude oil on the tariff list but now it is coming back to normal business with import volumes recovering," a second source said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss commercial deals with media.

Unipec did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE and Meng Meng in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Henning Gloystein and Tom Hogue)