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China’s oil demand grows, imports down

Oil&Gas Materials 15 December 2017 12:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.15

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

China’s crude oil imports dropped significantly in October by 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d), or 19 percent, from the previous month to average 7.3 mb/d, the lowest level seen since October 2016, according to OPEC’s December Oil Market Report.

“At the same time, China’s crude refining throughput was lower in October from the previous month. On an annual comparison, China crude imports increased by 530,000 b/d, or 8 percent,” said the report.

This is while OPEC estimates Chinese oil demand grew above the 0.7 mb/d for the second consecutive month in October, registering growth of 0.76 mb/d, or 6 percent year-on-year, according to latest available data.

“Oil demand growth was supported by increases across the barrel with middle distillates – both diesel oil and jet/kerosene – rising the most, followed by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel oil and gasoline,” said the report.

China’s oil supply was steady at 3.93 mb/d in October over the previous month, including 3.77 mb/d of crude oil, according to data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.

“Average crude oil production for the first 9 months of 2017 declined by 0.12 mb/d compared with the annual average output in 2016. Chinese oil output in 2017 is estimated to contract by 0.11 mb/d to average 3.98 mb/d, following lower-than-expected production, while the forecast for 2018 shows a y-o-y contraction of 0.16 mb/d,” said OPEC.

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