Amid global price rout, China crude oil imports hit record

China's crude oil imports hit a record 7.82 million barrels a day (bpd) in December, customs data showed, as the world's No.2 oil consumer took advantage of low crude prices to fill strategic reserves, but also increased its exports of refined fuels to an all-time high.

Crude imports for December were 33.19 million tonnes, up 21.4 percent on the month and 9.3 percent on the year, well above earlier estimates by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts.

The December import figures may mean China challenges the United States to be the world's top importer of crude, although the U.S. Energy Information Administration has yet to provide its December data. Chinese monthly imports surpassed U.S. imports once, in April 2015.

China shipped in 335.5 million tonnes of crude oil for the year, the data showed on Wednesday. That was up 8.8 percent, or roughly 542,600 bpd, to 6.71 million bpd - also a new record.

Wu Kang, Beijing-based vice chairman of FGE Asia, said the two driving factors behind growth in 2015 were new demand from small, independent "teapot" refineries who gained the right to use imported crude oil in the latter part of the year, and stockbuilding in strategic reserves and commercial storage .... http://in.reuters.com