A metric used to gauge oil demand in China, the world’s second-largest economy, show steady gains but at a slower pace than before, S&P Global Platts said. Platts measured China’s apparent oil demand, which measures the amount moving through domestic refineries against net imports, at 2.3 percent higher in December when compared with last year. When using official government data, apparent oil demand last year declined 0.8 percent as the economy moved from a quantitative growth phase to a qualitative one. The assessment from Platts, however, said it found an increase because of activity at independent Chinese refineries. “That said, the pace of growth fell in 2016 from 6.6 percent in 2015, when oil demand had been boosted by […]