China’s crude oil imports rose 6.5 percent in August from a month earlier to their highest since May, boosted by a rebound in demand from smaller, independent refiners, customs data showed on Saturday.Arrivals last month were 38.38 million tonnes, or 9.04 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs. This was up from 8.0 million bpd a year ago and 8.48 million in July and just slightly lower than the forecast of 9.12 million bpd from Thomson Reuters Oil Research. For the first eight months of the year, crude purchases stood at 299 million tonnes, up 6.5 percent, the data showed. Independent refiners, known as teapots, wound back their crude buying earlier […]