China's energy imports fall in April amid the Iran War as fuel exports reach a decade-low

China's oil exports dropped to their lowest level in nearly four years as the Strait of Hormuz was closed in April, cutting off the oil supplies to the world's largest oil importer.

According to data released by the customs on Saturday, crude oil imports fell?20% to 38.5 millions metric tons in April compared to one year ago, reaching their lowest level since 2022.

China imports about half its crude oil from Middle East. The closure of the strait in the Middle East has reduced the number of oil tankers that can transport oil and refined products around the world.

The data released by China on Saturday does not differentiate between oil imported via pipeline and oil imported by ship. Kpler's data, however, shows that seaborne crude imports are at their lowest level since July 2022, with 8.03 million barrels of oil imported per day.

Vortexa, a ship-tracking company, estimates that crude inventories rose by 17 million barrels during April. However, it predicted that they would drop in May.

China has tightened its export controls on refined products like gasoline and jet fuel in order to protect the domestic market.

This policy has driven refined oil product exports in April to the lowest level for about a decade, at 3.1 millions tons. That's a drop of around a third from March.

This may still be an overestimate of the amount going to customers in Asia or elsewhere because?the data include shipments to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is typically a major recipient for China's refined goods and is excluded from?export control.

The data do not distinguish between gas piped across the land and LNG transported by sea. China imports large quantities of LNG from the Middle East Gulf.

China's crude oil imports in the first quarter of this year were still 1.3% higher than last year, at 185.3 millions tons. (Reporting and editing by Tom Hogue, Lewis Jackson and Sam Li in Beijing)

(source: Reuters)