BEIJING — China's crude oil output grew 2.9 percent year-on-year in September, a faster increase than the 1-percent rate registered in August, official data showed.

The country's crude oil output came in at 15.64 million metric tons in September, bringing the total in the first three quarters to 143.13 million tons, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

As one of the world's largest oil buyers, the country imported 41.24 million tons of crude oil last month, rising 10.8 percent year-on-year but down 930,000 tons month-on-month.

About 56.49 million tons of crude oil was processed in September, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, compared with a 6.9-percent growth in August, the NBS data showed.

China aims to increase its annual domestic crude oil output to more than 200 million tons by 2020. The output in 2018 stood at 190 million tons.