Strategic reserves grew to 234 million barrels in early 2016 Second government update on strategic storage data in 9 months China reported it added about 43 million barrels of crude to its strategic reserves between the middle of 2015 and early this year, in a rare release of such data by the world’s second-biggest oil user. The statement posted on the website of the country’s National Bureau of Statistics is the first update the government has given on its reserves since December. The emergency stockpiles has been a source of speculation this year among analysts and traders, who rely on customs figures and infrequent construction updates to estimate how much of the country’s imports go into its strategic inventories, and for how long it will continue to fill them. The reserves totaled 31.97 million tons as of early 2016, equivalent to about 234 million barrels, the statistics office said […]