China’s crude oil imports hit 2-year low in July

China, the world’s largest oil importer, saw a decrease in crude oil imports in July, reaching the lowest level in almost two years. Despite this, China continued to rise its stockpiles as refinery throughput declined for the fourth consecutive month.

In July, China added approximately 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) to its commercial or strategic inventories, a significant drop from the previous month’s addition of 1.48 million bpd, according to calculations based on official data.

This trend raises concern given the decrease in crude oil imports, which hit the lowest level since September 2022. While China does not disclose specific stockpile volumes, estimates can be made by subtracting processed crude from total available crude from imports and domestic production.

In July, Chinese refineries processed 59.06 million metric tons of crude, equivalent to around 13.91 million bpd, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday.

This marked a 6.1% decline year-on-year and represented the lowest monthly processing rate since October 2022.

Meanwhile, crude oil imports fell to their lowest level since September 2022, reaching 9.97 million bpd in July. Combined with domestic production of 4.22 million bpd, this resulted in a total of 14.19 million bpd available to refineries.

Subtracting the processed volume leaves a surplus of 280,000 bpd, which was added to either commercial or strategic inventories.

The trend of building oil inventories persisted throughout the first seven months of the year, with a total surplus of 800,000 bpd.

Attribution: Reuters

Subediting: M. S. Salama