Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co., the nation's two biggest oil companies, will cut crude oil imports from West Africa in January by about 13 percent after shipping costs rose to a three-year high.

China's refiners and traders have booked shipments of almost 800,000 barrels a day of West African crude for loading in January, from 920,000 barrels a day in December, Vienna- based energy consultant PVM Oil Associates GmbH said in an e- mail received today.

The cost of shipping West African crude oil to China rose to 195 Worldscale points yesterday, the highest since December 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rate has more than tripled in a month. West African crude shipments to Asia will fall by 100,000 barrels to 1.13 million barrels a day in January from a month earlier, PVM said.

``High freight rates from mid-November have dampened buying interest of Chinese refiners,'' PVM said.

Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate, or flat rate, for a specific route. Flat rates, quoted in U.S. dollars a ton, are revised annually by the Worldscale Association in London to reflect changing fuel costs, port tariffs and exchange rates.

While China's imports will fall in January, it was still higher than the 2007 monthly average imports of 660,000 barrels a day, PVM said. India's imports will rise by 30,000 barrels to 215,000 barrels a day in January.

Asian refiners may have booked more cargoes for January loading in November because the premium of Malaysia's Tapis crude, an Asian benchmark, widened to $4 a barrel over Nigeria's Bonny Light grade, PVM said. Bookings may have declined in early December after Tapis weakened relative to Bonny Light to a premium of about $1.60 a barrel, it said.

Most crude oil from West Africa are classified as light, sweet and yield more gasoline, diesel and kerosene after processing compared with Middle Eastern varieties.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Singapore at nesas@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2007 20:44 EST