ET:China February crude oil imports at record high
BEIJING: China imported a record 5.95 million barrels per day of crude oil in February, 18.5 percent higher than a year earlier, data from China's General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday.
The record imports came as domestic crude oil production rose only 1.6 percent in February year-on-year, and fell 1.1 percent in the first two months combined.
Imports of oil products rose 32.9 percent to 3.92 million tonnes while exports of oil products rose 15.1 percent to 2.14 million tonnes, resulting in net imports of 1.78 million tonnes.
Chinese refineries processed about 9.28 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in February, a notch below January's all-time high and up 3.9 percent on the same month a year ago, according to official data released on Friday.
The crude oil throughput figures largely matched a Reuters poll which showed oil firms had trimmed production in February after running hard in January ahead of the Chinese New Year.
