When the bottom fell out of international crude oil markets earlier this year, global oil storage was at a premium. In the United States, finding sufficient crude oil storage became such a challenge that the West Texas Intermediate crude benchmark plummeted below zero on April 20, ending the day at -$37.63 per barrel, meaning that you would essentially be paid $40 to take a barrel of oil off of someone’s hands. China, however, soon busied itself stocking up on cheap oil, to the extent that Beijing played a key role in the global oil market’s recovery by helping to buy off a significant portion of the world’s severe oil glut. This is not to say that China’s government was alone in taking advantage of historically low oil prices or buying up oil in an attempt to salvage their own struggling energy sector. Back in March, the United States government […]