May 17, 2024 08:10 GMT
OIL: China Building Crude Reserves Amid Lower Oil Prices
OIL
China is replenishing crude reserves at a rapid rate this month amid lower oil prices with more than 30mbbls of crude added to inventories over the past month, according to Kpler and Vortexa.
- “We expect Chinese stockpiling to be firing on all cylinders in May,” said Viktor Katona at Kpler. “China is first and foremost flat price conscious, and right now, there’s a lull in oil.”
- Kpler expects China’s imports to rise this month from April despite refiners undergoing seasonal maintenance, indicating crude going into stockpiles.
- “This round of restocking probably will last till June before refineries ramp up following maintenance,” said Emma Li at Vortexa. A “fair bit” of inventories are composed of Iranian oil.
- Some forecasts suggest China has over 1bn barrels of combined strategic and commercial stock capacity.
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Source: Bloomberg
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