China’s 2025 oil imports, December inflows both hit record highs

BEIJING: China’s crude oil imports rose 17% from a year earlier in December, while total imports in 2025 rose 4.4%, government data showed on Wednesday.

In addition, daily crude oil import volumes hit all-time highs in both December and for all of 2025.

The world’s largest crude importer brought in 55.97 million metric tons of oil in December, equivalent to 13.18 million barrels per day (bpd), up 10% from 50.89 million tons in November, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China imported 557.73 million tons of crude oil in 2025, or 11.55 million bpd, up 4.4% from a year earlier, the data showed.

The growth in crude oil imports was attributable to stronger crude throughput and firmer restocking demand, according to Kpler, a consultancy.

It added that China’s oil throughput is expected to reach 15.38 million bpd in 2025, up 0.7% from a year earlier.

The average stock build in 2025 was 430,000 bpd, up from 84,000 bpd in 2024, with half of the growth driven by new storage capacity from both state-owned and independent companies, according to consultancy Rystad Energy.

“Energy security is the primary driver of China’s stockpiling amid rising geopolitical tensions,“ said Ye Lin, vice president at Rystad Energy. “Low oil prices also matter, as the average crude cost in China was $10 per barrel lower than in 2024 amid sanctions.”

Kpler and ship-tracking firm Vortexa both estimated record-high seaborne crude imports in December of more than 12 million bpd. Lower oil prices encouraged refiners to increase purchases, while strategic-petroleum-reserve restocking may also have played a role, said Muyu Xu, an analyst at Kpler.

Independent refiners were able to buy more spot cargoes after receiving import quota allocations in November, Xu added.

Kpler and Vortexa said onshore crude inventories rose by 35 million barrels in December and Kpler added that China’s onshore crude oil inventories reached a record high of 1.206 billion barrels in late December and early January.

More than 12 million barrels of stock builds during December occurred in Guangdong province, primarily at state-owned storage facilities linked to Sinopec’s Maoming and PetroChina’s Jieyang refineries, Vortexa said. Nearly 15 million barrels were accumulated in Shandong.

This was in line with record-high sanctioned crude imports into Shandong during November and December, Vortexa added.

“By contrast, imports from Iran fell below 1.3 million bpd in December from more than 1.5 million bpd in November, as increased Russian supplies displaced some Iranian barrels,” said Emma Li, an analyst at Vortexa.

China’s natural gas imports, including pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), surged 16.3% from a year earlier in December to 13.45 million tons.

For 2025, gas imports totalled 127.87 million tons, down 2.8% from a year earlier, customs data showed.