The world’s largest oil importer, China, is estimated to have drawn some crude from its oil reserves in July, although its refining throughput fell to the lowest level in over a year, Reuters columnist Clyde Russell has estimated based on official Chinese data. Last month, China is likely to have used 223,700 barrels per day (bpd) of its crude inventories, Russell calculates in an estimate of China’s crude imports plus domestic crude oil production, minus the refinery throughput. The estimates showed that Chinese oil refinery throughput was roughly 223,700 bpd higher than the combined available crude from imports and domestic production in July. China’s crude reserves , strategic and commercial, have always been the subject of speculation and guesstimates since Beijing doesn’t report inventories. Chinese refiners boosted crude imports at low prices last year, and continued to import high crude volumes at the start of this year. However, the […]