Sort of lost among the attention given to China’s record crude oil imports in December was the fact that the nation’s exports of refined fuels also hit an all-time high. Crude imports surged 21.4 percent in the final month of 2015 to hit 7.82 million barrels per day (bpd), taking the average for the whole year to 6.71 million bpd, another record and a gain of about 8.8 percent, or 542,600 bpd, over 2014. There is little doubt that China has been taking advantage of the relentless decline in crude prices to fill strategic and commercial stockpiles, a trend likely to continue this year, even if it may be at a slower pace given constraints on available storage tanks. But the changing dynamics of the world’s No.2 economy is also having […]