Seoul (Platts)--21Dec2012/913 am EST/1413 GMT

South Korea's oil consumption in November rose 4.3% year on year to 70.90 million barrels, compared with 68.03 million barrels a year earlier and up 3.0% from 68.85 million barrels in October, data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. showed Friday.

Of the total, the country consumed 6.09 million barrels of gasoline in November, 12.14 million barrels of diesel, 2.47 million barrels of kerosene, 4.20 million barrels of Bunker C oil, 2.38 million barrels of jet oil and 33.37 million barrels of naphtha, among other products.

South Korea's four refiners -- SK Innovation, GS Caltex, S-Oil and Hyundai Oilbank -- processed 77.28 million barrels of crude oil last month, down 1.6% from 78.53 million barrels a year earlier, and down 5.1% from 81.44 million barrels in October.

The country's oil product exports in November totaled 38.62 million barrels, up 9.9% from 35.13 million barrels a year earlier, but down 1.6% from 39.25 million barrels shipped in October.

South Korea imported 29.68 million barrels of oil products in November, up 25.8% from 23.59 million barrels a year earlier, and up 32.1% from 22.46 million barrels in October.

As of the end of November, KNOC held 15.35 million barrels of crude oil stocks, up from 10.87 million barrels a year earlier, and from 12.84 million in October. Its oil product inventory stood at 52.39 million barrels in November, up from 51.23 million barrels a year earlier but down from 53.25 million barrels in October.

Refiners held 15.35 million barrels of crude oil stocks and 45.61 million barrels of refined products stocks at the end of November, compared with 10.87 million barrels of crude and 44.36 million barrels of products a year earlier, and 12.84 million barrels of crude and 45.81 million barrels of products in October.

--Charles Lee, newsdesk@platts.com --Edited by Jonathan Fox, jonathan_fox@platts.com