UPDATE 1-China's Dec Saudi crude imports 4th highest on record

BEIJING Jan 21 (Reuters) - China's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia rose to 1.12 million barrels per day in December, the fourth-highest on record on a daily basis, Chinese customs data showed, as the world's top oil exporter pumped just under the 10 million bpd mark.

Data from the China General Administration of Customs showed China bought 9.56 percent more crude oil from the kingdom last month versus December 2010 and wound up the whole of 2011 with 12.6 percent growth at 50.28 million tonnes, or 1.01 million bpd.

That would leave Saudi supplying nearly 20 percent of total crude oil imports at about 5.08 million bpd into China, the world's second-largest crude buyer after the United States.

The December Saudi imports were a touch below November's 1.17 million bpd. The record was set in December 2009 at 1.18 mln bpd and the third-highest in July 2009 at 1.15 mln bpd.

The world's top oil exporter was pumping just under record rates of 10 million bpd earlier this month, Gulf-based sources said, after a record rate in November at 10.047 mln bpd.

Imports from Iran, China's third-largest supplier, jumped 41 percent in December over a year earlier at 2.43 million tonnes, or 572,000 bpd.

For the whole of last year, China's Iranian oil imports rose 30 percent to 27.76 million tonnes, or about 555,200 bpd, the data showed.

China's crude import growth last year slowed to nearly a third of the blistering pace of 2010, as weaker economic growth likely to drag into the new year weighed on demand.

Imports last year rose 6 percent at an average of about 5.08 million bpd. (tonne=7.3 barrels) (Reporting by Chen Aizhu)