BEIJING: China's commercial crude oil stocks at the end of January fell 3.65 percent from the previous month, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday, reaching their lowest level since December 2013. Refined fuel stocks were up 3.92 percent in January on month, China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals (OGP), a Xinhua oil and gas newsletter reported. Diesel stocks rose 6.74 percent, recovering from recent lows, on reduced activity in industry and logistics amid cool weather, the newsletter said. Gasoline edged up 1.38 percent ahead of the week-long Spring Festival holiday that fell this year in February. Kerosene, used mostly as aviation fuel, recorded growth of 2.46 percent from the previous month. National refinery crude throughput for the combined January-February period will be released on March 12. China imported 6.29 million barrels per day of crude oil in January, compared with the average of 6.71 million in 2015. The following table shows China's commercial stockpiles in millions of metric tonnes, calculated by Reuters based on monthly percentage change data released each month in China OGP. The publication stopped reporting outright volumes in July 2010. It does not include strategic reserves and may also not include reserves held by the state-owned oil majors for strategic purposes.

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