When it comes to its strategic petroleum reserves–and most other things, for that matter–China keeps its cards close to the vest. While tight-lipped government agencies have not and likely will not release detailed data about their strategic petroleum reserve and commercial crude storage, however, the international community can still get a rough idea of China’s crude stockpiling by reviewing what is public information: refinery throughput numbers and documented quantities of both Chinese domestic as well as imported crude. And these numbers tell a very interesting story. Despite higher oil prices in the first quarter (with a whopping 33 percent increase of global benchmark Brent), all signs indicate that China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, has continued to stockpile large volumes of crude in a wide array of both strategic petroleum reserves and commercial storage facilities. According to official data released this week, in the first quarter Chinese […]