China’s crude oil imports averaged 11.52 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up by 3.1 percent from August, but slowly returning to historical levels and starting to ease the congestion at Chinese ports, according to data from energy analytics services provider OilX. Compared to September last year, Chinese crude oil imports jumped by 24.4 percent, or by 2.26 million bpd, OilX’s data showed. “After growing for five consecutive months, floating storage in China fell for the first time, indicating that port congestion has started to ease,” oil analysts Juan Carlos Rodriguez and Valantis Markogiannakis wrote in a report on Monday. China’s oil imports continue to grow compared with previous years, but they are easing off the record-highs seen earlier this summer when Chinese refiners imported cheap barrels they had snapped up in April at the lowest prices in decades. “In fact, the number of loadings heading to China […]