China consumed 76.53 million mt of oil products in the first quarter, up 6.2% year on year, latest data posted on the National Development and Reform Commission's website showed Saturday.
The growth rate was slightly lower than the 6.5% gain recorded for the same period a year ago, NDRC's historic data showed.
Gasoil consumption rose 6% year on year over January-March, while gasoline consumption rose 5.4%, NDRC said, without providing volumes.
Meanwhile, oil product output rose 6.6% year on year to 90.78 million mt in Q1, NDRC said. The increase in oil product output outpaced that of consumption in Q1, the data showed.
China processed 145.77 million mt of crude oil in Q1, up 5.1% from the same period of last year, NDRC said.
Meanwhile, the country produced 46.81 million mt of crude oil in Q1, down 1.9% year on year, according to NDRC. The Q1 crude output and throughput data provided by NDRC differed slightly from that released by the National Bureau of Statistics recently.
According to NBS data, China's crude output and throughput were 46.33 million mt and 148.72 million mt respectively in Q1.
The NDRC data also showed that China produced 40.2 Bcm of natural gas and imported 29.5 Bcm in Q1, up 4.2% and 41.4% year on year respectively. Natural gas consumption totaled 69 Bcm in Q1, up 17.4% year on year, NDRC said.
NDRC did not provide crude, oil product and natural gas data for March.
S&P Global Platts calculates the data for March and the previous Q1 based on this Q1, January-February data and the percentage changes provided by NDRC.
NDRC releases key data on output in the oil and gas industry on a monthly basis, but without providing explanations for the changes.
