BEIJING — China's crude oil production rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to 16.61 million metric tons in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The growth rate was up by 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, and the country's daily average output of crude oil came in at 554,000 tons.

In the first nine months of the year, China's crude oil output totaled 149.84 million tons, up 2.5 percent from a year ago, the NBS data showed.

Imports of crude oil dropped 15.3 percent year-on-year to 41.05 million tons in September, while during the January-September period the imports totaled 387.4 million tons, a 6.8-percent decline from a year ago.