OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2012. China's implied oil demand inched up 0.4 percent in May year-on-year, and rose marginally from April, when the figure fell for the first time in more than three years.

The world's second-largest oil user burned about 9.344 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) last month, among the lowest rates since last October, calculations based on preliminary government data showed on Sunday.

Despite slowing growth, China is still expected to make up nearly half of global incremental demand in 2012, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Implied demand is calculated by adding crude oil throughput and net imports of refined oil products, but it omits stocks changes which are seldom disclosed by the government.

The daily rate compared to 9.3 million bpd in April and 9.31 million bpd in May 2011.

The relatively weak May demand figure was in part a result of lacklustre refinery operations, which posted their second straight month of year-on-year decline at 9.03 million bpd, as high crude cost and a cooling economy weighed on fuel use.

"For both April and May we reported negative growth in our sales of diesel oil, as industrial fuel consumptions declined," said a fuel marketing official with state-run Sinopec Corp, Asia's largest refiner.

In its May report, the IEA forecast China's oil demand would grow 4.1 percent, or 390,000 bpd, this year, which would mean China still accounting for nearly half of global incremental demand in 2012.