China's October crude oil imports rise to highest level since March amid Middle East war

BEIJING, Nov 10 (Reuters) - China's October oil imports fell 13.3% from a year earlier but reached the highest level since March this year after the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted supplies from the Middle East, official data showed on Tuesday.

China, the world's biggest oil buyer, imported 41.94 million metric tons of crude oil in October, or 9.88 million barrels per day, with the daily import rate up 9.4% from September, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

China’s oil product exports, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil, fell to 5.18 million tons in October from 7.16 million tons in September, but were up 14.6% from a year earlier, according to the data.

Refined oil product exports in the first 10 months of the year totalled 46.59 million tons, down 2% from a year earlier.

Oil product imports rose to 3.15 million tons in October from 1.85 million tons in September. January-to-October imports fell to 27.15 million tons from 34.19 million tons a year earlier.

Data also showed that natural gas imports, including liquefied natural gas and pipeline gas, rose 2.4% from a year earlier to 10.01 million tons in October.

January-to-October natural gas imports totalled 99.22 million metric tons, down 2.8% from a year earlier.