Chinese demand for oil in August reached a record level despite signs of a slowdown in the economy, analysis from Platts found. Platts found Chinese apparent oil demand, a reflection of how much oil goes into domestic refineries combined with net oil product imports, averaged 9.74 million barrels per day, a 3.7 increase from August 2013 and the highest level for the year. The assessment comes despite an economic production growth rate of 6.9 percent, the slowest rate since 2008. On a month-to-month basis, Platts found Wednesday that Chinese apparent oil demand in August was 1.4 percent above July levels. Through August, demand was up 1.2 percent from last year. The International Energy Agency in its monthly market report for September trimmed oil demand growth for 2014 to 900,000 […]