China's crude oil imports rose 10.6 per cent in November from a month earlier

China imported 41.792,400 tons of crude oil in November 2021, up 10.6% from the previous month, customs data showed. But in the same period of 2020, imports were 45.3561 million tons, down 7.3 percent year-on-year.

Although China's crude oil imports rose in November from The previous month, they were significantly lower than the same period last year. Imports for the January-November period were 467 million tons, down 7.3% from the same period last year, marking a rare decline in crude oil imports this year and the first annual decline since 2005. As can be seen from the figure above, since May 2021, China's monthly crude oil import volume has been significantly smaller than that of the same period, mainly because with the upgrade of whole-process supervision, the crude oil purchase volume has shrunk and the crude oil import allowance of some independent refineries has been tightened. At the same time, the international oil price keeps rising, to a certain extent, inhibits the enthusiasm of independent refineries to purchase.

Among the top 10 countries of origin in November, the most notable change was the United Arab Emirates. For the first time, crude oil from the United Arab Emirates has entered the top three sources of China's imports. In November, China imported 4.4671 million tons of UAE crude oil, up 120.5% from The previous month, mainly due to the decline in the official selling price (OSP) of UAE crude oil. For Example, The OSP of Murban crude oil was set at 69.73 USD/BBL in October, 5.1% lower than 73.5 USD/BBL in September. This has significantly stimulated China's enthusiasm in importing UAE crude oil. The next big change was in UK crude, up 80 percent from the previous month, with independent refiners taking advantage of fortis, a typical light crude that they blend with other oils.

The biggest drop in the top 10 countries of origin was Iraq. Iraqi crude oil fell to fifth place in November from third in October. Because Iraqi crude oil is mainly basra light and Basra heavy, basra light is seldom used in independent refineries. Although Basra heavy is the raw material of some bituminous refineries, the market of bitumen has been depressed in recent months, and the burden reduction of refineries, especially the main refineries, has obviously restricted the demand for Basra heavy.

2022 is coming, the market for the purchase of forward crude oil is gradually warming up, the overall trading atmosphere continues to pick up, and the first batch of 2022 import permits may be expected to be issued before January, there is still room for future crude oil imports to improve.