China is hoarding oil As Middle East oil producers drive prices lower and make life difficult for the U.S. fracking industry, one clear winner is emerging: China The world’s second-largest economy become the top oil importer in April. The key reason? China is taking advantage of cheap oil to boost its strategic reserves. “They’ve been building out strategic storage. The goal is to build out to about 500 million barrels, compared to the U.S. capacity of 700 million to 800 million barrels,” said Jeff Brown of Singapore-based energy consultants FGE. Brown said that while the numbers are a little murky, China has already built out about 150 million barrels of extra storage, with more capacity planned through the end of the year. “They take a lot of pride in buying oil when it’s cheap,” he said. Despite the massive capacity boom, China is still buying more oil than it […]