Logistical bottlenecks and swelling crude inventories will soon force China’s independent refiners to cut back on a surge of imports, possibly threatening a recent recovery in oil prices, said a senior official from China’s biggest private refiner. China’s independent oil refiners, known as teapots, were granted licenses to import crude only last year, and their emergence has acted as a catalyst to turn around one of the steepest price routs ever, which saw crude futures tumble by more than 70 percent between 2014 and early 2016. Frenzied buying from the teapots to stock up on cheap crude in the first quarter helped push prices to 2016 highs last week, leading to long lines of tankers waiting to unload at ports in eastern Shandong province, where most of the independent […]