China’s imports rose 14 per cent in March from a year ago, customs data showed, as domestic oil production has remained flat and demand for refined fuel products held at near-record levels in recent months.

China still imported a lower-than-expected 26.81 million tonnes of crude oil in March, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. On a daily basis, March imports of 6.3 million barrels per day (mbpd) were down 5.2 per cent from February.

China’s crude imports have been sustained by flat domestic oil output and implied oil demand that has remained above 10 mbpd for the past six months. The International Energy Agency (IEA) last month revised up its forecast for China’s oil demand growth in 2015 to 2.7 per cent.

With global oil prices LCOc1 at their lowest levels in six years, China has also been adding to its strategic reserves, although some analysts say China could be running out of storage space and that the imports could pull back. The March volumes were 1 million tonnes shy of an earlier estimate by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts. April imports are forecast to stay on par with actual March volumes.

In the first quarter, China imported 80.34 million tonnes of crude oil, or 6.52 mbpd, up 7.5 per cent over the same period last year.

China generated an implied surplus of almost 585,000 bpd in the first two months of the year, not accounting for changes in commercial stocks, according to a Reuters analysis of Chinese government data.

China is in the second phase of filling its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), and revealed in November that the first phase was holding roughly 91 million barrels. The government rarely releases details about its reserves.