China's filling of its strategic reserves and refiners capitalizing on falls in international crude oil prices helped drive the country's crude imports sharply higher in September, to a level analysts said was a record monthly high, The Standard reported. Continued robust economic growth in spite of policy moves by the Chinese government to cool the housing market and excessive borrowing were also cited by market observers as supporting oil demand, said the paper. According to David Hurd, a Beijing-based oil and gas research analyst at Deutsche Bank, this would be an all-time high for any month, beating the 13.15 million tonnes of crude that China imported in January. "It looks like they are importing oil for their strategic reserves," Hurd said. "Filling the strategic reserves will suck away a bit of Chinese production, which means that China will have to import more to compensate," said Gordon Kwan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at brokerage CLSA.