LAUNCESTON, (Australia): China boosted its stockpiling of crude oil to the highest level in three years in June, taking advantage of cheap Russian crude to bolster inventories and add flexibility to future import requirements.

The world’s biggest oil importer added 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) to commercial or strategic stockpiles in June, according to calculations based on official data.

This was up from the 1.77 million bpd added in May and the most since June 2020, when imports surged as Chinese refiners lifted imports as crude prices slumped to the lowest in three decades as global demand collapsed during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China doesn’t disclose the volumes of crude flowing into or out of strategic and commercial stockpiles, but an estimate can be made by deducting the amount of crude processed from the total of crude available from imports and domestic output.

China’s refiners processed 60.95 million metric tons in June, equivalent to 14.83 million bpd, according to data released on July 17 by the National Bureau of Statistics. This was up 10.2% from the same month in 2022, and was the second-highest monthly total, eclipsed only by the 14.91 million bpd in March.

The volume of crude available to refiners was 16.93 million bpd, consisting of imports of 12.67 million bpd and domestic output of 4.26 million bpd. Subtracting the refinery throughput from the total crude available leaves a surplus of 2.1 million bpd that was available for storage.