By Chen Aizhu
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -China’s crude oil imports jumped in November from a year earlier for the first annual growth in seven months, data showed on Tuesday, driven by lower prices of Middle East supplies and additions to the national stockpile.
The world’s top crude oil buyer took in 48.52 million metric tons last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, up 14.3% from 42.45 million tons a year earlier and equivalent to about 11.81 million barrels per day.
Daily average imports were the highest since August 2023 and up from a low base in November 2023 of 10.33 million bpd.
Despite the rebound, year-to-date imports were 1.9% lower, potentially pointing to a decline for the whole of 2024. A decline from 2023 would mark the third annual fall in the past five years after pandemic-triggered drops in 2021 and 2022.
Refiners in November bought more oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq following sharp cuts in the official selling prices, offsetting some of the decline in imports of Iranian oil because of reduced loadings in October.
Loadings at export terminals, including Iran’s Kharg Island hub, had dropped significantly in October from September, with ship owners concerned about possible Israeli attacks on Iranian oil facilities, according to tanker trackers Kpler and Vortexa.
China’s newest refiner Shandong Yulong Petrochemical ramped up a 200,000 bpd crude unit to around 90%. Yulong Petrochemical is also aiming for trial runs on a second unit of the same size as early as January.
The new refinery’s increased runs and China’s issue of an additional crude oil import quota of at least 5.84 million tons (116,800 bpd) to independent refiners for 2024 should help to lift December imports, according to traders.
China has also asked state oil companies this year to add 8 million tons of crude to its emergency stockpiles to boost supply security. Stockpiling in the eastern province of Shandong, where most refiners are located, started in late September with imports of Russian and Middle East crude, Vortexa analyst Emma Li wrote in a report.
The November data also showed China’s natural gas imports, comprising both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and piped gas, declined 1.4% on the year to 10.80 million tons. Year-to-date volumes are up 12% over the same period last year at 120 million tons.
Exports of refined oil products, which include diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, rose 3% from a year earlier to 5.23 million tons and were up versus October’s 3.96 million tons, which was the lowest since April 2023.
Exports of gasoline rebounded in November as refiners dashed to secure higher profits before changes to export tax rebates took effect in December.
(Metric ton = 7.3 barrels of crude oil)
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
