China's major fuel stocks up 4.7 pct in June-source

BEIJING, July 9 (Reuters) - Stocks of gasoline, diesel and kerosene held by China's top two oil firms at the end of June rose 4.7 percent from a month earlier, to above 12 million tonnes, while oil product sales rose 5.9 percent, an industry official with access to the data told Reuters on Thursday.

The rise in fuel inventories at Sinopec O386.HK and CNPC, parent company of PetroChina (0857.HK), followed a mild increase in May and contrasted with two consecutive sharp monthly falls for April and March.

"A recovery in the real demand is still staggering. What we see is just seemingly prosperous numbers," said the official, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Gasoline inventories held by state refiners CNPC and Sinopec jumped 7.6 percent in June versus 5.4 million tonnes at the end of May. Diesel inventories rose 1.4 percent in the same period from about 6.3 million tonnes at the end of the previous month, the source said.

Sales of gasoline by the two oil majors rose 4.2 percent in June and sales of diesel rose 4.7 percent in the same month, said the source.

China does not publish official crude oil and oil products data. But oil firms and industry bodies such as China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) collect industry data through their own channels and by their own methods, leading to discrepancies in figures.

OGP, a newsletter run by the official Xinhua news agency, also publishes a different version of fuel stocks data sourced to CNPC.

It was unclear what accounts for the difference between the two sets of data, but an executive at CNPC, who declined to be named, said the CPCIA figures were more reliable than OGP's.

Industry analysts and oil traders said the OGP fuel stock levels are usually only about half of CPCIA data, much smaller than what they understand the level should be. (Reporting by Eadie Chen and Tom Miles; Editing by Ramthan Hussain) (eadie.chen@reuters.com; +8610 6627 1268; Reuters Messaging: eadie.chen.reuters.com@reuters.net))