China Feb crude imports at peak, diesel imports surge

China raised February crude imports by 18.1 percent over a year earlier to match a record high on a daily basis, the General Adminsitration of Customs said on Monday.

Crude imports last month were 14.29 million tonnes (or 3.6 million barrels per day), confirming preliminary data, about the same with the previous peak in April 2007.

Imports for the first two months rose 9.5 percent at 28.23 million tonnes, the customs said.

The world's second-largest oil consumer also boosted February diesel imports by nearly ten times over a year earlier at 327,753 tonnes, as oil firms continued to stock up after two months of near-record purchases to fight a supply shortage late 2007.

Gasoline exports fell 80.6 percent at 131,716 tonnes.

Fuel oil import rose 8.7 percent to 1.72 million tonnes, but were below average monthly rate in 2007 as sky-high import cost dampened demand from Chinese power plants and small refineries.