Stockbuild buoys oil imports

摘要

Record crude imports pushed up Chinese apparent oil demand — domestic crude production plus net oil imports — in Sep-tember. But stockpiling is likely to be inflating the demand profile, and imports were scaled back sharply in October. Net imports reached 6.2mn b/d in September, 690,000 b/d above the year-to-date average, and 1.4mn b/d higher than a year earlier. Apparent demand rose to 10.6mn b/d. Net imports fell to 4.8mn b/d in October, a 14-month low.