China's commercial crude inventories climbed for the third consecutive month in August, gaining 2.0% month on month, according to the data released by China National Petroleum Corporation.
China boosted crude imports by 8.29% to 21.04-mil mt in August, the data from the General Administration of Customs indicated.
Meanwhile, the country's crude throughput declined by 1.87% to 36.78-mil mt because of converging refinery maintenance, above 1.07% of month-on-month drop in its crude output, the data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
With national strategic petroleum reserves taken into account, China's crude inventories were equal to about 69 days of net imports or 38 days of consumption at the end of August, C1 data showed.
Domestic major refiners' crude inventories comprise stocks in refineries and pipelines and commercial stockpiles.
