BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- China’s crude oil output rose 2.5 percent year on year to 16.87 million tonnes in July, official data showed. 

The July output grew 3.1 percent from the 2019 level. The daily oil output last month stood at 544,000 tonnes, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In the first seven months, the country’s crude oil output came in at 116.21 million tonnes, an increase of 2.4 percent from a year earlier.

As one of the world’s largest oil buyers, China imported 41.24 million tonnes of crude oil in July, down 19.6 percent year on year.

The crude oil imports dropped 5.6 percent year on year in the Jan.-July period to 301.83 million tonnes, the NBS data showed.