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By Sam Li and Lewis Jackson
BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuters) - China's crude oil imports rose 8.2% in October from a year earlier, as refineries operated at their highest utilisation rates this year.
The world's largest crude importer brought in 48.36 million metric tons of oil in October, up 2.3% - equivalent to 11.4 million barrels per day - from September, according to data from the General Administration of Customs on Friday.
China's seaborne crude imports rose to 10.4 million barrels per day in October, up 6% from September and 9% year-on-year, as refiners ramped up throughput on improving margins, according to tanker-tracking firm Vortexa Analytics.
"In particular, state-run refiners have increased runs in the second half of the year to capture domestic market share from private refiners and maximise fuel export quota utilisation amid improving margins, leading to a visible slowdown in onshore crude stockpiles," said Emma Li, a China analyst with Vortexa.
Kpler's data showed a notable rise in China's crude oil imports from West Africa and Brazil, driven by favourable arbitrage economics. Russian oil arrivals increased month-on-month in October due to higher Urals volumes of 283,000 barrels per day, their highest level since June 2023.
"Arrivals from Saudi Arabia and Iraq declined as Sinopec's domestic refineries underwent maintenance in October, leading to reduced deliveries under long-term contracts for September-loading cargoes," said Muyu Xu, senior analyst at Kpler.
For the first 10 months of the year, total crude imports rose 3.1% to 471 million metric tons.
Imports of natural gas, including both pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$, fell 7.2% in October from a year earlier to 9.78 million metric tons. Total imports during the first 10 months stood at 102.6 million metric tons, down 6.2% from the same period last year.
(1 metric ton of crude oil=7.3 barrels)
(Reporting by Sam Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
((Sam.Li@thomsonreuters.com;))