China’s crude oil imports could rise at the end of this year and early next year as independent refiners have just been issued additional crude import quotas for end-2024.
Chinese authorities have issued additional quotas to the private refiners, the so-called teapots, to import at least another 5.84 million metric tons of crude by the end of the year or early next year, sources with knowledge of the developments told Reuters on Monday.
This additional import quota, equal to about 116,800 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, could boost Chinese imports at the end of a disappointing year for oil purchases and consumption.
The quota is expected to be used by the end of the year, trade sources told Reuters.
China is already on track to have boosted its crude oil imports in November—thanks to low oil prices, not high demand.
The uptick in imports currently estimated by commodity-tracking firms is likely due to the low oil prices in the first half of September, when concerns about demand – especially Chinese consumption – dragged down international crude oil prices, with Brent Crude settling below $70 per barrel on September 10.
The market has yet to see actual signs of a recovery in Chinese oil demand, which has trended lower than forecasts for most of the year.
October marked the sixth consecutive month in which crude cargo arrivals have lagged behind the imports in the same months of 2023, official Chinese data showed in early November.
Last month, China imported a total of 10.53 million bpd of crude oil, per data from the General Administration of Customs. That’s 9% lower compared to October 2023 and 2% below the import level of 11.07 million bpd in September 2024.
The November and December crude oil imports are likely to be higher.
Last month, China raised by 6% the total import quota for private refiners for 2025, to about 5.14 million bpd.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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