China's commercial crude inventories climbed for the fourth consecutive month in September, gaining 3.0% month on month, according to the data released by China National Petroleum Corporation.
China reduced crude throughput by 1.87% to 36.09-mil mt in September, the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The drop was mainly because of maintenance among some refineries below PetroChina and Sinopec.
The country cut crude imports by 2.80% to 20.45-mil mt and reduced crude output by 4.80% to 16.29-mil mt, showed the data from the General Administration of Customs and NBS.
With national strategic petroleum reserves taken into account, China's crude inventories were equal to about 70 days of net imports or 39 days of consumption at the end of September, C1 data showed.
Domestic major refiners' crude inventories comprise stocks in refineries and pipelines and commercial stockpiles.
