Hong Kong (Platts)--12May2009

China imported 16.17 million mt (3.96 million b/d) of crude oil in April,
up 13.6% from 14.24 million mt imported in the same month of 2008, preliminary
data from the country's General Administration of Customs showed Tuesday.

Although the April volume was down 1% from the previous month's 16.34
million mt, it was the country's third highest monthly crude import of the
past year, after March and the 16.2 million mt imported in May 2008.

High crude imports in March and April came amid increasing signs that the
sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy may have bottomed out.

In the first four months of 2009, Chinese crude imports were down 4.5%
from a year ago at 57.07 million mt (3.5 million b/d), underlying the
sharp yearly drop in the first quarter amid the global economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, Chinese crude exports reached 360,000 mt (87,720 b/d) in
April, down 23.4% from March's 470,000 mt, but up 56.5% year on year.

Between January and April, China exported 1.88 million mt (114,523 b/d)
of crude oil, 107.4% more than 910,000 mt exported in the same period of 2008.

China raised its oil product imports in April to 3.7 million mt, up
15.6% from March's 3.2 million mt and up 2.5% from a year ago.

Oil product imports totaled 12.66 million mt over January-April, 1.8%
less than 12.89 million mt imported over the same period in 2008.

Oil product exports reached 2.08 million mt last month, a 69.1% spike
from a year earlier and up 34.2% from March's 1.55 million mt.

Chinese oil companies exported a total 6.25 million mt of oil products
over January-April, up 29.4% from 4.83 million mt a year earlier.

The strong year-on-year rise in April crude imports helped lift China's
net petroleum imports 6.3% year on year to 17.43 million mt last month.

It was also the first year-on-year rise for 2009 after petroleum imports
fell for three consecutive months from January to March. Net imports in
January slipped 13.6% from a year earlier to 13.63 million mt. The decline
widened to 17.6% in February, but narrowed to 7% in March.

China's Yuan 4 trillion ($580 billion) stimulus package to boost domestic
demand to fight the global economic crisis showed signs of success, with
investment in infrastructure rising as exports fell.

Overall Chinese exports fell 22.6% in April from a year earlier, the
sixth straight month of decline, according to the customs figures released
Tuesday, as the global economic crisis continued to take its toll.

However, urban fixed asset investment, an indicator of the government's
progress in lifting growth by funding infrastructure projects, rose 30.5% over
the first four months of 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

While China imported 13.6% more crude in April than a year ago, its crude
procurement bill fell 47% as global crude prices plunged from the record highs
of mid-2008.

The country paid $5.43 billion for its crude imports last month, compared
with $10.25 billion in April 2008. This is equivalent to an average
$45.68/barrel that Chinese oil companies paid for crude imports on a C+F basis
in April -- $52.24/b or 53.3% less than $97.92/b they paid a year ago.

The average per-barrel cost of crude imports between January and April
slipped 53.6% to $42.9/b, from $92.5/b in the same period of 2008.

Income from China's crude exports in January-April rose 26.5% from a year
earlier on the back of a 107.4% jump in barrels flowing out of the country.
Chinese crude producers raked in $670.4 million from the crude they sold
overseas in the first four months of this year, compared with $529.9 million
in the same period of 2008.

However, weak global crude prices hit the per-barrel revenue collected by
Chinese crude producers, which slipped 38.8% to an average $48.78 between
January and April, from $79.67 a year earlier.
--Winnie Lee, winnie_lee@platts.com