China’s crude oil imports tumble in December

Oil

China’s crude oil imports plummeted by 1.99M b/d (or 18%) m-o-m and 1.66M b/d (or 15%) y-o-y to 9.1M b/d in December, the lowest level since September 2018, according to China customs data. This is also 90K b/d lower than the five-year average for December, as several independent refiners had exhausted their import quotas following the heightened purchasing of crude oil cargoes as prices collapsed earlier in the year, Reuters report. Across the whole of 2020 China’s crude oil imports averaged 10.87M b/d, increasing by 700K b/d (or 7%) y-o-y to the highest annual level on record.