China's crude oil imports in August improved from July volumes but were down 23.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to customs data released on Tuesday.
The world's biggest oil buyer imported 14.6 per cent less oil in the first eight months than a year earlier after restricting refined oil product exports since March to safeguard domestic supplies, while domestic consumption fell because of higher prices.
August marked the second consecutive month of month-on-month growth in oil imports, however, as China eased its controls since July on refined oil products.
China imported 37.93 million tonnes of oil, or 8.93 million barrels per day, up 6.2 per cent from July.
Onshore oil inventories fell by 550,000 barrels per day in August, slowing from a decline of 800,000 barrels per day in July, according to ship-tracking data provider Kpler.
Imports will gradually recover after September, but seaborne imports will remain below 8.5 million to nine million bpd, while inventory declines will slow further, said Muyu Xu, an analyst at Kpler.
China's refined oil product exports, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil, totalled 6.01 million tonnes in August, up 29 per cent month on month and exceeding the 5.33 million tonnes recorded in August last year.
“The month-on-month increase in crude imports is in line with the surge in fuel exports in August and continued strong exports in September," said Emma Li, analyst at ship-tracking firm Vortexa.
Vortexa expects at least three million tonnes of transportation fuel exports to destinations other than Hong Kong in September, up 50 per cent from a year ago.
In the first eight months, China's refined oil product exports totalled 34.24 million tonnes, down 9.6 per cent from the same period last year.
Domestic transportation fuel consumption also slightly improved from July, with gasoline demand at 12.6 million tonnes and diesel demand at 15.48 million tonnes in August, according to Oilchem.
However, gasoline and diesel demand were still down eight per cent and nine per cent, respectively, from a year earlier, according to Oilchem data.
Chinese customs data also showed that China's natural gas imports in August, including LNG and pipeline gas, stood at 10.33 million tonnes, down 12.9 per cent from a year earlier.
In the first eight months, natural gas imports stood at 78.23 million tonnes, down 4.4 per cent year on year.
(Reporting by Sam Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Saad Sayeed)