January 03, 2025 [Oil Price]- China has just given a potential boost to its crude oil imports as it has issued a second batch of import quotas for 2025 to its independent refiners, trade sources told Reuters on Monday.
Unlike the state refiners, private refiners in China need to be granted import quotas to be able to import crude to process at their refineries.
The Chinese authorities have now issued at least 152.49 million metric tons of crude oil import quotas to the independent refiners, the so-called teapots, according to Reuters’s sources.
These add to at least another 5.84 million metric tons of crude by the end of 2024 or early next year, which China issued at the end of November.
The 5.84 million-ton quota was expected to be used by the end of this year.
With the second batch of at least 152.49 million tons, crude import quotas to independent refiners for 2025 have increased so far to 158.33 million tons, or 3.17 million barrels per day (bpd), per Reuters estimates. This compares to a total import quota of 179.01 million tons for 2024.
China has recently raised the provisional cap of crude import quotas that it would issue to private refiners in 2025—to 257 million tons, up from the cap of 243 million tons of crude for 2024.
China, the world’s largest crude oil importer, has seen lackluster oil demand and crude imports in 2024 amid a weaker-than-expected economy and faltering demand for road transportation fuels.
The fresh crude oil import quotas could spur purchases in 2025, especially if oil prices continue to be in the low $70s per barrel.
After months of weak crude imports, China’s imports rose in November for the first time in seven months as lower prices stimulated stronger demand.
The average daily import rate in November stood at 11.81 million barrels, Reuters reported earlier in December, citing customs data from China. The total for the month was 14.3% higher than a year ago.
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