China keeps buying crude oil for storage, but difficulties loom
China appears to have kept the flow of crude into strategic and commercial storage facilities at high levels in the first quarter, even as the price of oil climbed.
While China doesn’t release detailed statistics of its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) and commercial stockpiles a rough idea can be gleaned by looking at refinery throughput numbers and the volume of domestic and imported crude.
Refineries processed 12.6 million barrels per day (
Crude imports in the January-March period were 9.83 million
Subtracting the refinery throughput from the total crude available leaves a gap of 1.07 million
The same calculation for the December quarter showed a gap of 950,000
The increase of storage flows came as crude prices started to climb, with global benchmark Brent gaining 33 percent from the end of last year to a close of $71.62 a barrel on Wednesday.
It’s worth noting that cargoes that arrived in China in January and February would have been fixed at a time when crude prices were still dropping, with Brent sliding 45 percent between its 2018 peak close of $86.29 a barrel in early October and the year’s low of $50.47 on Dec. 24.
It’s still speculation as to whether the recent surge in crude prices will result in slower inflows into storage in China, although the gap between refinery output and total crude available did narrow in March to about 690,000
IT’S COMPLICATED
The numbers for April may not shed much more light on this issue, given several Chinese refineries are undertaking maintenance closures, with
A further complicating factor is the potential crimping of China’s imports from two major suppliers, Iran and Venezuela, which are both subject to U.S. sanctions.
This would appear not to be the case for April, with
China’s imports from Iran, however, may be affected in coming months if the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump decides to tighten restrictions on Iran from early May.
This is when the six-month waivers granted by Washington to eight importing countries, including Tehran’s top buyers China and India, are due to expire.
Another potential factor for China’s crude imports is the ongoing efforts of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, to restrict output in order to boost prices
Refinitiv expects that China will only import about 1.29 million
Overall, if China is struggling to source crude from Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, it may point to less crude flowing into SPR and commercial storage sites in coming months. (Editing by Tom Hogue)
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