RE: Loss of Oil production4 Apr 2020 16:28
And now, with crude oil prices through the floor, the Chinese economy has emerged from its slumber to buy it all up. “China is moving forward with plans to buy up oil for its emergency reserves after an epic price crash,” Bloomberg reported this week. “The world’s biggest importer is taking advantage of a 60 percent plunge this year to snatch up cheaper barrels for its stockpiles, a source of considerable speculation in the oil market because of the government’s reluctance to release information about their formation, size or use.”
The country intends to buy up so much crude oil in the coming weeks that they won’t have enough state-owned storage to hold it all. According to interviews with industry insiders who asked Bloomberg to maintain their anonymity, Beijing has plans to use commercial storage space as well, while also reaching out to the private sector to encourage them to fill their own tanks with cheap gas as part of a nationwide contingency plan.
“The initial target is to hold government stockpiles equivalent to 90 days of net imports, which could eventually be expanded to as much as 180 days when including commercial reserves,” the Bloomberg report continues. “Ninety days of net crude imports is about 900 million barrels [...]. While the current size of China’s state reserves is unknown, and Beijing could use a different method for calculating net imports, oil traders and analysts estimated it could amount to China buying an additional 80 million to 100 million barrels over the course of the year.”
This could be great news for the global oil market, which desperately needs to sell off some of the glut that brought oil prices so low in the first place, but likely will not make enough of a dent to correct the problem any time soon.