Skip navigation
Newswire

China Apr crude imports up on pre-war bumper buys

By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, May 20 (Reuters) - China's crude imports jumped for the fourth consecutive month in April versus year-ago periods as bumper purchases made before the war in Iraq began to appear in the customs data, Chinese oil officials said on Tuesday.

April crude arrivals totalled 7.89 million tonnes, nearly 22 percent above the year ago level. Imports in the first four months of 2003 soared 43 percent to 30.1 million tonnes, Chinese customs data released on Tuesday showed.

"Stock building in the run-up to the Iraq war is now showing in the April arrival data," said a state oil trader in Beijing.

Also bolstering the crude purchases was China's high refinery operations in April, when national crude throughput surged to near the highest point since 1999 at 19.8 million tonnes, or 4.95 million barrels per day (bpd).

"Refiners ramped up production as margins were really good in April. Domestic products prices stayed at a high level from February," said an official with China's largest refinery Sinopec Zhenhai.

Officials said the hefty imports had not yet resulted in excessive crude inventories because of strong domestic demand for refined oil products and higher overseas sales in both products and crude during the same period.

The International Energy Agency posted a 10.1 percent growth in Chinese oil demand in the first quarter to 5.34 million bpd as roaring economic growth drove up car sales, manufacturing and construction.

But the agency slashed its demand forecast for the second quarter by 5.5 percent to 4.95 million bpd as the SARS virus cut deep into China's land and air traffic, especially from May.

China's crude exports between January and April shot up 44.5 percent to 3.03 million tonnes, with April recording the highest sales so far this year at 1.13 million, customs data showed.

SUDAN, OMAN JUMP

The April import data also showed big increases in crude imports from Sudan and Oman, while purchases from main West African supplier Angola fell sharply.

"The normal scenario is that when prices for Brent-related West African crude rise, China will take in more Oman. That was the market in February," said the Beijing trader.

Oman sales into China rallied 47 percent to about 996,500 tonnes in April compared with March.

Sudanese Nile Blend surged by 43 percent from March to top one million tonnes in April.

Saudi Arabia remained the largest supplier in the month, with sales at 1.167 million tonnes, or 15 percent of China's total imports. Iran ranked second with exports at 1.053 million tonnes.