China’s crude oil imports last month hit the highest since March, reaching 41.94 million tons, equal to around 9.88 million barrels daily. The October average was a 9.4% increase on the previous month as well, Reuters reported.
Seaborne crude oil imports specifically went up by 12% in October from September, according to data from Kpler.
Citing official customs data, the publication also reported that despite the monthly increase and the seven-month high, October’s total in oil imports was still 13.3% below the volume for October 2025. Chinese oil imports for the first ten months of 2026 were 15.1% lower than the ten-month total for 2025.
Imports from Saudi Arabia rose markedly last month, the data showed, at 1.62 million barrels daily, which was in line with last year’s Saudi monthly total. It is, however, a marked increase on earlier months this year when the war in the Middle East prompted Chinese buyers to sharply cut their purchases from the region—and overall.
Since the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran began at the end of February, China has relied on its huge crude oil inventories after oil prices jumped to above $100 per barrel. The world’s biggest crude importer has drawn from its 1.3-billion-barrel stash for most of the months after March as it slashed imports amid soaring prices.
China slashed its total crude oil imports to a decade low in June, leaning heavily into its inventory cushion. However, since summer, imports have started to pick up in what some analysts called a potentially worrying development on the basis that if China’s low oil-buying was keeping a lid on prices, its higher buying would take that lid off.
For now, this does not seem to have happened, with oil prices moved mostly by reports on geopolitical topics and developments in the Middle East.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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