S.Korea's Dec crude oil imports down 1.7 pct

South Korea's crude oil imports fell 1.7 percent in December from a year earlier to 96.6 million barrels, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed on Sunday.

Final data will be released later this month by state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC).

Details of preliminary imports and previous actual figures are as follows:
   
                           (In millions of barrels)
                  December 2016    November 2016*    December 2015*
 Crude Oil         96.6                  91.6                        98.3
 
    * Actual import figures

Note: The ministry did not break down imports by country of origin. South Korea's total crude imports in November increased 12.2 percent to 91.6 million barrels year-on-year, according to KNOC data last month.

 (Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Richard Pullin)