OP: China likely tapped its crude inventories In July

Oilprice.com writes:

Chinese refiners likely tapped their crude stockpiles in July as crude processing ramped up while imports slumped from the previous month, estimates by Reuters columnist Clyde Russell based on official Chinese data showed on Wednesday.

Before July, China was estimated to have been stockpiling crude, and accelerating the pace of building inventories. Cheap Russian oil helped China accelerate the pace of stockpiling crude in June to the largest monthly additions to inventories in three years, Reuters’ Russell estimated last month.

In July, however, China likely tapped crude storage because the refinery throughput exceeded available crude from imports and domestic production.

China does not report commercial or strategic inventories, so analysts are trying to estimate the volume of stockpiling by deducting the amount of processed crude from all available crude coming from imports and domestic production.

Earlier this week, statistics data showed that Chinese refiners processed 17.4% more crude oil last month in response to stronger demand for fuels both at home and abroad. The processing rate translated into 14.87 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, up from 12.5 million barrels daily a year earlier…

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