LAUNCESTON, Australia - China resumed storing crude oil in the first two months of the year with almost 1 million barrels per day (bpd) being added to inventories in January and February, rebuilding stockpiles after a rare drawdown toward the end of last year.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s daily refinery throughput rose 15% in the first two months of the year, from a low base a year earlier, as fuel demand remains solid and refineries rush to hike production ahead of maintenance season.
FILE PHOTO: A man is seen at an exit of the refinery plants of Chambroad Petrochemicals in Binzhou, Shandong province, China October 24, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
Refinery processing reached 114.24 million tonnes in the January-February period, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday, equivalent to about 14.13 million barrels per day (bpd). The agency didn’t disclose numbers for January and February separately.
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States overtook Saudi Arabia as India’s second biggest oil supplier after Iraq last month, as refiners boosted cheaper U.S. crude purchases to record levels to offset OPEC+ supply cuts, data from trade sources showed.
Crude oil is dispensed into a bottle in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
The switch in supplies, triggered by lower U.S. crude demand, coincided with Saudi Arabia’s voluntary extra 1 million barrel per day (bpd) output cut, on top of an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) to maintain lower production.
A four-month rally in the oil futures price from below $40 a barrel to above $60 now is out of step with demand, analysts and traders say, with physical sales only expected to match supply later in 2021.
OPEC sees a generally positive oil market outlook with last year's uncertainty easing, but downside risks caused by the pandemic persist, the group's secretary general and its experts said on Tuesday.