As a result, Russian diesel makes up 27% of Europe's total 1.69 million b/d of imports in the period, the data showed.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 8.4 million barrels to 448.0 million barrels.

Brent climbed 76 cents, or 0.88%, to $86.68 a barrel, WTI went up 85 cents, or 1.06%, to $81.03.

The lower throughput came as China's GDP expanded 3% in 2022, NBS data showed, lower than the government's annual target of about 5.5%.

Brent fell 62 cents, or 0.7%, to $84.66 a barrel, WTI was down 51 cents, or 0.6%, at $79.35 a barrel.

The OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, on which Mazrouei sits, is co-chaired by Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

With India becoming the largest buyer of Russian crude in late 2022 and China posting close to double-digit growth in Russian inflows over January-November, refiners in South Korea, Japan and Thailand are finding it easier to procure term and spot crude supplies from Middle Eastern producers,

China's natural gas imports also fell, by 9.9% to 109.25 Mt in 2022 (121.26 Mt in 2021). LNG imports dropped by 19% to 64.13 Mt in 2022 (79.3 Mt in 2021). Similarly, China’s coal imports fell 9.2% to 293.2 Mt in 2022 (335 Mt in 2021).

Brent had fallen 33 cents, or 0.4%, to $83.70 a barrel, WTI slipped 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $78.19.

That would take consumption to an all-time high of about 16 million barrels a day, the survey showed.