BEIJING: China's implied oil demand dropped 6 percent in July from June as crude runs fell slightly and the world's largest energy consumer exported its highest net volume of fuel so far this year.
Elsewhere, in another worrying sign for the economy, the value of new loans fell 64 percent in July. Beijing stepped up efforts to re-energise the economy in June, but analysts say more support may be needed to sustain a recovery.
China consumed roughly 9.57 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil last month, according to Reuters calculations based on preliminary government data, down from 10.2 million bpd in June.
July consumption was also down 2 percent from 9.77 million bpd a year earlier, the calculations showed.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) revised its annual forecast for China downwards in its August report because of lower estimates for diesel and gasoil use, predicting oil demand would rise just 2.9 percent for the whole of 2014 rather than its original estimate of 3.5 percent.
Oil demand is expected to grow 3.8 percent in 2015, based on upbeat sentiment in manufacturing, the IEA said, although that was lower than its previous 4.2 percent forecast.
Reuters calculates implied oil demand by combining official figures for refinery throughput and net imports of refined product, excluding any inventory changes, which are rarely disclosed by the government.
China's daily processing of crude in refineries in July fell 5 percent to 41.08 million tonnes, or 9.67 million bpd, from 10.18 million bpd in June, as crude oil imports fell slightly, data from the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) showed.
However, crude throughput was up 2 percent from a year before, according to statistics bureau numbers.
China turned net fuel exporter again in July, for the third time this year.
Net exports in July were 450,000 tonnes, or 102,000 bpd, compared to net imports of 110,000 tonnes in June and 1.21 million tonnes a year earlier, customs data showed earlier.
China imported 5.6 million bpd of crude oil in July, down 1.1 percent from June. Crude imports for the first seven months of the year rose 7.2 percent to 6.05 million bpd compared with the same period last year.
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