Will Russian President Vladimir Putin finally be able to secure a Chinese commitment on an ambitious natural gas pipeline project that could transform energy flows across Asia?
China imported in August record volumes of coal and the third-highest monthly amount of crude oil ever. But the recent surge in the imports of major commodities could be masking one-off temporary factors instead of a rebound in China’s economic growth in the second half of the year.
Hundreds of oil and gas traders, hedge fund managers, producers and analysts will fill high-end bars and hotels in Singapore this week, hoping to answer one question: Is China really back?
Oman has an importance to China and Iran that goes way beyond its relatively small oil and gas reserves (only around five billion barrels of oil reserves and about 24 trillion cubic feet of gas).
Even with the share of renewables in electricity production rising continuously over the past years, oil remains the world’s most important energy source when factoring in transport and heating.
Despite higher oil prices and narrower discounts of Russian crudes to international benchmarks, Russia remained the single largest crude oil supplier to China in July, ahead of its OPEC+ partner Saudi Arabia, according to Chinese customs data.
Oil prices edged down on Wednesday, extending a 1% drop in the previous session, as worries about China’s struggling economy outweighed declining U.S. stockpiles.
China is expected to import as much as 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Iran in August, the highest since 2013, per estimates from data intelligence firm Kpler cited by Bloomberg.
Chinese refiners processed 17.4% more crude oil last month in response to stronger demand for fuels both at home and abroad, state statistics data cited by Reuters has shown.
Amidst a prevailing backdrop of bearish sentiments for many commodity markets throughout this year, there has been an expectation of a resurgent Chinese economy to kickstart another demand cycle and boost prices. However, China’s latest economic indicators to be published cast doubt upon the realization of this much-anticipated revival. In this week’s article, we will look at this latest round of data, the current implications on commodity prices and how this situation may develop in the near future.