China may be bolstering its emergency crude reserves as refiners in the world’s second-largest oil consumer expanded commercial stockpiles to a record high in May. Crude inventories rose 4 percent from April, China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals, published by the official Xinhua News Agency, said in an e-mailed report today. That’s about 33.59 million metric tons, or 246.2 million barrels, the most in records going back to January 2010. Gasoline supplies also swelled to a record, climbing 0.9 percent to an estimated 7.6 million tons. China’s commercial oil stockpiles can be channeled for strategic use, according to industry consultants including ICIS-C1 Energy in Shanghai and FGE in Singapore . Refiners accelerated crude imports in April and May as the nation sought to increase its energy security with prices at a “fairly” high level, said Amy Sun, an oil analyst at ICIS-C1. “We believe high commercial stocks may indicate refiners […]