S&P Global: China's oil stocks help offset global surplus

S&P Global, which spoke at the APPEC Conference on Monday, said that China, as the world's largest oil importer, had been stockpiling the crude at a record pace for several years, helping to balance a global surplus despite the output increases by OPEC+.

China has built up crude oil stocks at a rate 530,000 barrels per daily (bpd) this year. This is according to Jim Burkhard of S&P Global Commodity Insights, the global head of crude market research.

Burkhard stated that the pace at which it is stockpiling represents one of the largest increases seen in a single year outside of 2020. It has also played a significant role in helping absorb surplus production in particular in the second quarter.

He said that China's total crude oil onshore inventories were around 1.4 billion barrels.

He said: "That's a very, extremely large increase. It is bigger than the global oil demand growth."

S&P estimated that global oil demand will grow by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year. Over half of the growth is due to natural gas liquids, biofuels, and crude oil.

(source: Reuters)