China surpasses U.S. as world's top crude importer in September

Data released by customs earlier on Thursday showed that China imported record volumes of crude oil in September. Customs data showed China's September crude imports rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 33.06 million tonnes or 8.04 million barrels per day (bpd) on daily basis.

Crude oil import volumes gained 14% to 284 million tonnes (7.55 million bpd) in the first nine months of the year, according to the data. The rise in crude imports indicate robust demand for the black gold as Beijing's strategic reserves shipped in cheap crude to fill new storage tanks. China's newly-built storage tanks can take some 19 million barrels of crude, or about three days worth of imports, traders said.

The buying outpaced the US four-week average assessed by the US Energy Information Administration of 7.98 million bpd at the end of September. It marked the second time this year - but the third month in the past twelve - that China's imports have overtaken the United States.

Seperate data showed China's September exports fell 10 percent from a year earlier, far worse than expected, while imports unexpectedly shrank 1.9 percent after picking up in August. China posted trade surplus of $41.99 billion for the month, missing analysts' expectations for the trade surplus to expand to $53 billion in September from August's $52.05 billion.