Updates details on China's stockpiling in paragraphs 12-14

By Sam Li and Lewis Jackson

July 14 (Reuters) - China's crude oil imports rebounded in June, reaching their highest daily rate since August in 2023, data showed on Monday, after refineries increased operations and imports rose from Saudi Arabia and Iran, according to consultancies.

The world's largest crude oil buyer imported 49.89 million metric tons of oil, equivalent to 12.14 million barrels per day, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

The volume rose by 7.1% compared with 46.6 million tons in May and was also up 7.4% year on year.

"The most important reason for the surge is the tumble of the oil price from April as arrivals in June were mostly purchased in April and May as term contracts take a big share of China's crude buying," said Ye Lin, vice president at Rystad Energy.

Maintenance affected a combined refining capacity of 107.7 million tons per year in June, down by 22.2 million tons from May, according to data from local consultancy Oilchem.

"We estimate that China's crude oil demand rose to 15.17 million bpd in June, up from 14.8 million bpd in May, as more refineries resumed operations following spring turnarounds," Kpler analyst Muyu Xu said.

Kpler also observed an increase in imports from Saudi Arabia and Iran in June.

Kpler's data show that China's imports from Saudi Arabia rose by 845,000 bpd to 1.78 million bpd, as lower official selling prices prompted Chinese refiners to nominate more May and June loading cargoes.

Crude imports from Iran also increased sharply, climbing by 445,000 bpd to 1.49 million bpd, as independent refineries replenished inventories following the end of spring maintenance, the firm added.

Monday's data also showed China's refined fuel exports fell 0.7% in June to 53.35 million tons from a year earlier.

Natural gas imports - including piped gas and liquefied natural gas - fell 7.8% on the year to 10.55 million tons, the data showed.

China's crude oil stocks, meanwhile, surged by 82 million barrels in the second quarter in 2025, according to a report released last week by the International Energy Agency.

New policies aimed at improving China's energy security are positioning oil companies as long-term strategic storage partners for the government, effectively removing those volumes from the global market, the IEA said.

The agency also said that Chinese companies are expected to continue driving the expansion of inventories, with the pace of stock-building over the coming months crucial to the market balance.

(Metric ton = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)

(Reporting by Sam Li; Editing by Stephen Coates and Joe Bavier)

((Sam.Li@thomsonreuters.com;))