China’s November crude oil imports reach highest daily level in 27 months

BEIJING: China’s crude oil imports rose 4.88% in November from a year earlier, government data released on Monday showed, with daily import volumes reaching the highest level since August 2023.

The world’s largest crude importer brought in 50.89 million metric tons of oil in November, equivalent to 12.38 million barrels per day (bpd), up 5.24% from October, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

China imported 521.87 million tons of crude oil from January to November, up 3.2% from the same period last year.

However, China’s atmospheric and vacuum distillation capacity utilisation rate declined from October at state-owned refineries, leading to a 5.72% monthly fall in domestic refined oil production to 35.78 million tons, according to Chinese consultancy Oilchem.

“Domestic demand has experienced a seasonal decline, but sanctions on crude supplies from Iran and Russia have led to significant price reductions for feedstock, boosting refining margins and prompting more refineries to apply for advance import quotas ahead of the first batch in 2026,” said Emma Li, Vortexa’s lead China market analyst. China’s seaborne crude oil arrivals in November were higher than in October.

Saudi Arabian oil arrivals increased by 345,000 bpd from October to a five-month high of 1.59 million bpd, driven by Chinese companies taking delivery of significant volumes of October-loaded cargoes, according to shipping analytics firm Kpler.

Iranian oil arrivals increased by 233,000 bpd from October to 1.35 million bpd in November, the highest level since August, according to Kpler.

“This was partly due to Iran’s high export volumes in previous months, and partly because buyers likely anticipated early allocation of November crude quotas, prompting them to lock in supplies ahead of time,” said Muyu Xu, senior analyst at Kpler.

Russian seaborne crude oil arrivals fell by 157,000 bpd month-on-month to 1.19 million bpd in November, likely related to reduced procurement by state-owned refiners and the fact that earlier independent refineries had tight quotas, Xu added.