China’s commercial stocks of crude oil were up 1.58% month on month at end February, while oil products stocks surged 13.6% over the same period, latest data released by state-owned Xinhua news agency showed. It was the third consecutive month-on-month growth in commercial crude and oil product stocks, S&P Global Platts calculations showed. Xinhua said its inventory data was obtained from China Petroleum Stockpile Statistics, which excludes oil held in strategic petroleum reserves. No reasons were given for the month-on-month changes in the report, which provides only changes to stock levels in percentage terms, not volumes. China imported 32.3 million mt, or 8.45 million b/d, of crude oil in February, down 12.1% from the record high of 40.64 million mt, or 9.61 million b/d, in January, latest General Administration of Customs data showed. The National Bureau of Statistics has not released monthly crude production and throughput data for January […]