Chinese buying hits record

摘要

Chinese purchases of west African crude rose to recordlevels for February-loading cargoes.Chinese refiners have taken 1.1mn b/d of west Africancrude for February, the highest ever, and an increase ofaround 300,000 b/d from January loadings (see graph). Buyers are likely to have been lookingfor alternatives to Mideast Gulf crudes,after Saudi Arabia raised formula pricesfor January-loading cargoes to recordhighs for Asia-Pacific customers. SaudiAramco has since cut February formulaprices to Asian destinations.