China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, reduced net crude oil imports to the lowest level in 18 months as prices and stockpiles increased. Net purchases dropped to 16.1 million metric tons last month, or 3.8 million barrels, from a record in September, according to customs data released in Beijing today. Net imports in October were the smallest since May 2009. China paid on average 2 percent more in October for each barrel of crude purchased from overseas compared with the previous month as global benchmark prices rose. The imports, which reached an all-time high of 22.9 million tons in September, will help meet rising energy demand from car owners, farmers and factories in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. “Domestic oil refiners’ crude stockpiles have been boosted by record imports in the past months,” Gong Jinshuang, an engineer at the research unit of China National Petroleum Corp., the country’s biggest oil producer, said by phone from Beijing. Crude imports in the first 10 months surged 20 percent from a year earlier to 197.6 million tons, today’s customs data showed. That’s equivalent to 1.45 billion barrels. China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automobile market and Germany as the largest exporter. Domestic automobile sales may exceed 17 million units this year, increasing fuel requirements, the National Energy Administration said last month. Oil Prices In October, China paid an average $76.12 for each barrel of overseas crude compared with $74.63 in September, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the customs data. Crude prices in New York have risen 17 percent since Sept. 1. Futures were at $86.38 a barrel in electronic trading at 12:51 p.m. Singapore time. China’s net imports of oil products, including gasoline and diesel, gained for a third month in October, rising 18 percent to 840,000 tons, according to customs, which doesn’t provide a breakdown by fuel type in its preliminary data. The imports will help plug diesel shortages in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Factories are buying up diesel, depleting supplies for trucks, as government-mandated electricity restrictions force them to use the transport fuel to power their generators. China is curbing industrial electricity use in a last-ditch effort to meet Premier Wen Jiabao’s goal of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent in the five years ending 2010. That’s prompting some manufacturers to turn to their own diesel generators at the same time as use of fuel climbs during the autumn harvest, Qiu Xiaofeng, an oil analyst at China Merchants Securities Ltd., said on Nov. 5. The diesel shortfall will ease as refiners expand fuel production and after the government completes its efforts to meet energy-efficiency goals, Shi Yan, an oil analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd., said by telephone in Shanghai today. --Winnie Zhu. With additional reporting by Chua Baizhen. Editors: Ryan Woo, Jane Lee. To contact the reporter on this story: Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jane, Ching Shen Lee at jalee@bloomberg.net.

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