China pumps record crude despite economic headwinds

Record domestic production and high imports contrast with weak economic growth to raise the question of how much more crude China can store

China’s apparent crude demand has continued to defy stalling momentum in the world’s number two economy, with robust consumption projected through the rest of this year. But the unusually high volumes raise questions about how much is genuine consumption and how long the mismatch can last. China is producing record amounts of crude and importing vast amounts of it, reflecting a strength of demand that is increasingly difficult to reconcile with underwhelming economic activity. Chinese majors produced 4.28m b/d domestically in June, up by 1.9% from a year ago and nearly 600,000b/d more than when domestic output fell to a low of 3.71m b/d in September 2018—a gain that exceeds what some OPEC+ n