UPDATE 2-China October crude oil imports up 13.5% on last year

Adds analyst comment, refined fuel export data and natural gas import data paragraphs

BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuters) – China imported 13.52% more crude oil in October from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, as refiners stepped up purchases using fresh import quotas and as domestic fuel demand expanded during the Golden Week holiday.

Crude oil arrivals last month into China totalled 48.97 million metric tons, or 11.53 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs, up marginally compared with 11.13 million bpd in September.

Year-to-date imports by the world’s largest oil buyer amounted to 473.22 million tons, or 11.36 million bpd, an increase of 14.4% from a year earlier.

Domestic consumption of gasoline and aviation fuel received a strong boost during the eight-day Golden Week holiday when travellers made 826 million trips within mainland China, up 71.3% from a year earlier and 4.1% higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

The release of a fourth batch of crude oil import quotas, as well as healthy refining margins through the third quarter, spurred cargo arrivals.

“China has experienced a large-scale crude stock build from March to August this year, based on lower oil prices. With the rising prices, China’s crude imports pace has slowed down, implying the possibility of a stock draw in the coming months” said Lin Ye, an analyst at Rystad Energy in Beijing.

Tuesday’s data showed refined fuel exports at 5.17 million tons, down from September’s 5.44 million tons but up 16.07% compared to 4.46 million tons a year ago.

For the first 10 months, exports – including diesel, gasoline, kerosene and marine fuel – were up 33.2% on the year at 53.09 million tons, as state-run refiners ramped up crude oil processing to cash in on profitable export business.

Overseas fuel sales from top state refiner Sinopec, for instance, soared nearly 30% year-on-year during the first three quarters.

China natural gas imports last month were 8.79 million tons, up 15.5% on the previous year but down on September’s 10.15 million tons.

Thanks to recovering industrial activities and overall lower gas prices versus last year, China’s apparent natural gas demand grew 7% during the first nine months from a year earlier to 289 billion cubic meters, the state planner said last week.

Year-to-date imports, including piped gas and shipments of liquefied natural gas, amounted to 96.51 million tons, up 8.8% from the corresponding period in 2022.

(ton = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)

(Reporting by Andrew Hayley in Beijing and Chen Aizhu in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue & Shri Navaratnam)

((Andrew.Hayley@thomsonreuters.com;))