China’s crude oil imports for the first two months of 2022 fell nearly 5% from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, as independent refiners, also known as teapots, curbed production because of narrowing margins and government curbs.

Imports during the January-February period totalled 85.14 million tonnes, or about 10.53 million barrels per day, down versus 11.08 million bpd the same period a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said on Monday, without giving a breakdown for the individual months.

Since February, operations at independent Chinese refiners have fallen to below 60% of capacity, versus more than 70% a year earlier as plants were ordered to lower output to minimize air pollution during the Beijing Winter Olympics that took place from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20, according to trading sources.

“Some plants in Shandong were told to lower production before the Winter Olympics to help improve air quality,” said a refinery executive based in eastern province Shandong, China’s hub for independent refineries.

However, top state refiner Sinopec Corp 0386.HK maintained largely stable purchases in January versus a year earlier, a company representative said when asked if the firm stepped up imports to boost inventory.

Also capping fuel demand is China’s relentless zero-tolerance COVID-19 control policy that limited long-distance driving during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

Monday’s data also showed natural gas imports for the first two months of 2022, including both piped gas and liquefied natural gas, fell 3.8% from a year ago to 19.86 million tonnes, as red-hot spot LNG prices LNG-AS dampened purchases.

Also, exports of refined oil products for the January to February period fell by a third from a year earlier to 7.3 million tonnes, the data showed, after the government slashed exports quotas to tame excessive domestic processing.

Imports of refined fuel gained 16.6% year-on-year to 4.64 million tonnes during the period.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Shivani Singh)