An oil tanker docked at the Yantai crude terminal in East China's Shandong province
China’s recovering oil demand may not be all it seems
Rise in imports may be more to do with stockpiling ahead of summer than actual increased consumption
China’s crude imports are showing signs of strength for March and April following weakness in January and February. But there is much debate over whether recent Chinese buying represents a genuine turnaround for end-user demand in the world’s biggest oil market and can be sustained in the second half of this year. Two key questions are the level of stockpiling and the limits to Russian crude purchases—and the uncertainty is likely to linger as demand continues its uneven revival. Vessel-tracking data indicates Chinese crude imports for March are set to increase by 250,000bl/d from February, to c.10.7mn bl/d, according to local consultancy JLC. This would mark a recovery from soft imports of
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026
