China's commercial crude oil inventories at the end of December fell 1.9 percent from the previous month to the lowest since July, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The data echoes a separate set of official data released last Friday that showed China's crude oil throughput hit record rates that also lifted output of both gasoline and diesel to record highs.
Refined fuel stocks gained 2.6 percent from end-November, with gasoline up 5.2 percent to the highest since at least January 2015 at 8.36 million tonnes, according to calculations based on historical data. Diesel inventories dropped 1.5 percent to 5.86 million tonnes, the lowest level in at least two years.