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
13 April 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis highlights sharp shift from crude oversupply to market deficit, with Iraq and Kuwait badly affected and key producers Saudi Arabia and the UAE also seeing output sharply lower
13 April 2026
Turkmenistan is moving ahead with a modest expansion of the giant Galkynysh field to sustain gas deliveries abroad, but persistent delays to other key pipeline projects and geopolitical risks continue to constrain its export ambitions
13 April 2026
Expensive electricity has forced out swathes of energy-intensive industry and now threatens the country’s ability to attract future investment in datacentres and the digital economy
13 April 2026
For GCC producers, the ceasefire may prove more destabilising than the war itself: exports remain constrained, and control over Hormuz has shifted in ways that could endure
