China's imports of crude oil in June slipped as retail price caps and signs of flagging demand in the world's second-largest oil consumer encouraged refiners to cut processing and draw from domestic stockpiles.
Shipments of crude were 11.12 million tonnes (2.71 million barrels per day), down slightly from 11.27 tonnes (2.74 million bpd) in June 2004, customs data reported by the official Xinhua agency showed.
Refiners have been boosting exports and drawing down stocks as margins have been crushed between rising global markets and government retail price caps for diesel and gasoline.
Sinopec, the country's largest refiner, has also been reselling millions of barrels of foreign crude as apparent demand slows.
May's apparent demand for oil products - net imports plus refinery output, but excluding changes in stocks - was down more than 4 per cent from a year earlier, Reuters calculations show.
Crude imports in the first six months of the year were 63.42 million tonnes, 3.9 per cent more than in the year-earlier period, Xinhua said.