BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce announced on Thursday that the quota for non-State crude oil imports will stay unchanged at 87.6 million tons for 2017.

The volume is equivalent to around 26 percent of China's crude oil imports last year.

Applicants for the crude oil import quota shall provide records about crude oil imports for the past two years or qualifications to process imported crude oil, according to MOC rules.

China drastically increased the quota for non-State crude imports in 2016 as it seeks to attract more private capital in the largely monopolized sector.

Last year, China gave private refineries the green light to directly import crude oil.

China is one of the world's largest oil buyers. Over 60 percent of its oil consumption comes from imports. Crude imports are dominated by State-run giants such as Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

In the first 10 months of 2016, China imported 312 million tons of crude oil, up 13.6 percent year on year.