Chinese oil imports boosted by independent refiners in April

China imported significantly more oil last month, led by demand from independent refiners as the country's state-run oil giants moved to shut-in production from higher cost fields.

Those independent refiners, known as teapots, many of whom are concentrated in the province of Shandong, have been making the most of the import quotes granted to them this year so that they could source their own supplies.

Shipments of crude oil to Asia's largest economy rose by 3.2% in April to 32.58m metric tonnes, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs published on Sunday, an amount equivalent to 7.96m barrels a day, just a tad below the previous month's record mark of 8.04m barrels a day.

Oil production in China, the world's fifth largest producer, fell by 1.8% from a year ago in the first quarter of 2016 according to government data, with analysts at StanChart forecasting a 6% drop over the whole of 2016 to 4.05m barrels per day, according to Bloomberg.

Front month Brent crude futures on the ICE were 0.896% higher to $45.78 per barrel as of 09:12 BST.