The U.S. is the world’s largest holder of emergency crude stockpiles, but now it’s selling off reserves, while China, the second-largest, is taking advantage of low crude oil prices to fill storage. And earlier this month, for the first time in history , China bought crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), scooping up 550,000 barrels for US$28.8 million. It’s not a massive purchase, but it is unprecedented. So while China is stockpiling emergency reserves at a time when crude prices are low, the U.S. appears to have come to the view that its SPR is no longer a critical part of energy security, or a critical element in the case of disruptions. It is, after all, expensive to keep up this storage, and part of the reason for the U.S. sell-off is to finance the upkeep. The oil price crisis has thrown everyone off balance, but […]