OREANDA-NEWS. August 27, 2012. Chinas total natural gas imports in July rose 28.2% year on year to 3.5 billion cubic meters (4 Bcf/day), the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website.

Apparent demand for natural gas in July was 11.4 Bcm, an increase of 10.5% year on year, NDRC added.

In the first seven months of the year, apparent gas demand rose 12.8% year on year to 82.8 Bcm, with total gas imports rising 38.6% over the same period to 23.3 Bcm.

Official customs data breaking down natural gas pipeline and LNG imports is expected to be released later this week.

In a separate statement, the NDRC said apparent demand for oil products in July totaled 21.86 million mt (5.03 million b/d), up 4.4% year on year. On a daily basis, the volumes were up 1.2% from June and up 6% from the first half. It did not specify the individual products.

From January to July, apparent demand for products rose 3.1% year on year to 143.6 million mt.

At the end of July, total gasoil inventories stood at 7.55 million mt, an increase of 300,000 mt from the same period last year, the NDRC said. It added that total oil products inventories were 670,000 mt higher year on year, but did not provide absolute volumes.