Oil tankers are seen at a terminal of Sinopec Yaogang oil depot in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
BEIJING/SINGAPORE, July 13 (Reuters) – China’s crude oil imports in the first half fell 3% over a year earlier, the first contraction for the period since 2013, as an import quota shortage, refinery maintenance and rising global prices curbed buying.
Imports totalled 40.14 million tonnes last month, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday, equivalent to 9.77 million barrels per day (bpd).
That compared with 9.65 million bpd in May and a record 12.9 million bpd in June 2020 when refiners snapped up cheap oil to supply a Chinese market fast recovering from the coronavirus.
For the first half of 2021, imports into the world’s top crude oil importer totalled 260.66 million tonnes, 3% lower than a year earlier.
Bumper purchases led by independent refineries bolstered imports in the first quarter, which grew 9.5% over the same period of 2020.
However, imports slowed drastically in the second quarter as inventories climbed and refining margins were squeezed amid steadily rising global oil prices and a flood of imports of blending fuels such as light cycle oil that slipped into the diesel pool.
Independent refiners also faced tighter import quotas as the government stepped up scrutiny into crude oil imports by state and private refiners in an effort to tame a surplus in refining capacity and to curb emissions. read more
“The crackdowns on teapot crude quota trading and the non-compliant crude supply by national oil companies to teapots really hit the crude imports in June,” said Seng Yick Tee, senior director at consultancy SIA Energy.
(crude conversion tonne=7.3 barrels)
Reporting by Muyu Xu and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jacqueline Wong
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