Buying by state-owned refiners pushed up China's crude oil imports in May 15.4% year on 

year  to 37.2 million mt, or 8.8 million b/d, but analysts said they expected crude inflows to 

ease in June due to high stocks. 

Imports  in  May  rose  4.7%  month on month, preliminary data released Thursday by the 

General Administ ration of Customs showed. 

The  imports  are  the s econd  highest  level  ever after  9.21 million b/d imported  in Mar

ch  this year. 

"The increase was mainly from state-owned refiners as crude arrivals for independent refi

ners  declined   from  April," said  Hou  Rui, an  analyst  with S&P  Global Platts' China Oil 

Analytics. 

Independent  refineries in China's eastern Shandong and Hebei provinces imported 8.43 

million mt, or    1.99 million b/d, of crude oil in May, down 3% from April despite a 46% ye

ar-on-year increase, Platts da   ta showed. 

He added that most of the cargoes for the state-owned refiners were booked in March w

hen oil prices were low.

The monthly average Platts Dated Brent and Platts Dubai crude assessments were $51.

56/b and $51.20  /b respectively in March, a four-month low. 

"Refinery outages remained high in May, so the incremental barrels are likely to flow int

o storage for use in June," Hou said. 

Platts China Oil Analytics estimated that around 1.31 million b/d of refining capacity was 

shut in May for   maintenance -- 728,000 b/d for Sinopec refineries and 285,000 b/d for 

PetroChina refineries. This was down from 1.5 million b/d in April, but still higher than la

st year. 

Preliminary production data for May, including refinery runs, is scheduled to be released 

around June 14 by the National Bureau of Statistics. 

Hou said that imports in June were likely to decline due to ample stocks and increase ag

ain in July due to peak summer demand for oil products.