One of the features of the crude oil market this year has been China’s weak imports and faltering exports of refined fuels. But despite the decline in oil imports, China has actually been building up inventories, as crude imports and domestic production has been exceeding the volume of refinery processing. China added about 850,000 barrels per day (bpd) to either commercial or strategic stockpiles in August, according to calculations based on official data. This was an acceleration from the 290,000 bpd inventory build in July, and brought the total additions to storages for the first eight months to about 1.46 million bpd. China doesn’t disclose the volumes of crude flowing into or […]