(Reuters) -China, according to public data, traders and industrial experts, Russia’s Ukraine invasion raises global energy flows and accelerated this year as a quick clip to increase oil reserve areas as part of a campaign to increase raw stocks urgently.
According to public resources, including domestic news reports, government reports and company websites, government oil companies, including Sinopec and CNOOC, will add at least 169 million barrels to 11 sites in 2025 and 2026.
Sources, 37 million barrels capacity was built. After new sites have been completed, according to Reuters calculations based on Chinese trade data, China will be the largest oil importer because it is an important volume of China’s net raw imports.
Beijing’s reserve construction – S&P Global Commodity Insight last month, China estimated that China has stock an average of 530,000 barrels per day – the group of OPEC+ manufacturers is suppressing excess global supply and support prices. Merchants and consultancy, recently fed prices of less than $ 70 per barrel, at least in the first quarter of 2026, they say they expect.
It is a strategic fragility in which China tries to alleviate the heavy dependence on foreign petroleum, which is mostly carried by tankers, through Beijing’s storage, diversification of imports and maintaining domestic production. China is also rapidly developing renewable energy and electrifying the fleet of the vehicle, both gasoline and diesel demand decreases and it is likely to peak in 2027.
Reserve site construction is accelerating. Based on Reuters Research this year and the future, the new additions planned for analytical companies almost matched to 180-190 million barrels where Vortexa and KPler have been estimated in the last five years.
The privacy of China’s reserves means that the list may not be comprehensive and that the status of projects may change.
Beijing built its first strategic reserve site in 2006, but the latest thrust, Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, stressed the fragility of Beijing oil imports, which triggered the wave of destructive sanctions in Moscow.
Traders and analysts say that since the end of 2023, Beijing has given government companies the authority to stock oil. In July, London -based energy aspects showed a task that required the purchase of 140 million barrels for strategic reserves with delivery until March 2026.
“China’s stocking strategy has been sufficient energy safety, which is largely dependent on raw imports for the nation,” Sparta Emtiaess Singapore -based analyst. He said.
“The agenda has become more urgent with geopolitical risks surrounding Russia and Iran this year.” He said.
China is the most raw customer for both countries.
BLURRED LINES
China’s government stocks include special strategic oil reserves (SPR) sites built before 2019 and newly known as “commercial reserves”.
He says that both serve as urgent reserves, and the latter works with more flexibility under the supervision of the National Reserve Office, which allows government refineries to return stocks to meet commercial needs.
A law adopted in January coded the integration by including both the government and its commercial stocks in a single definition of national reserves, saying that companies should maintain their government -controlled “social responsibility” reserves.
Considering the sensitivity of the issue, all reserves are managed according to two industry sources under state oil firms, all reserves are managed according to two industry sources controlled by the administration of the National Food and Strategic Reserves under state oil companies.
According to local state media reports, two sites under construction in the state of Shaanxi with 11 million barrels with united capacity were defined as part of the state reserves online as part of the state reserves.
Another site, 20 million barrels of Sinopec Plant, which is under construction on Hainan Island, was defined by a local state media organization as a contribution to both commercial storage and national reserve capacity.
National Food and Strategic Reserve Administration, Sinopec and CNOOC did not respond immediately to comments.
More will come
The latest public update on Beijing’s stock capacity, the National Statistical Bureau, said that China has built nine storage bases with a total capacity of 238 million barrels.
In August, the Federation of Semi -Official Chinese Petroleum and Petrochemical Industry, the state media, state reserve storage capacity should grow more than 1 billion barrels equivalent to three -month net imports without giving a timeline.
This will be compatible with the need for the international energy agency to have at least 90 -day net import stocks of the members, although China is not a member.
The two sources of trade said Beijing aims to enlarge their stocks to cover six -month imports or roughly 2 billion barrels.
Compared, the US kept 404 million barrels raw in strategic oil reserves at the end of August, but the country has been the largest oil producer in the world and has been a clear exporter since 2019.
Consultancy KPLER, China’s states and private companies, including the total national reserves and commercial stocks, 799 million barrels in early September, at the beginning of the 2023 levels over 109 million barrels of levels.
Vortexa has 73 million barrels-barrels in 735 million barrels in 735 million barrels, including refinery stocks, including refinery stocks.
These special estimates were found in the four underground SPR region, where Reuters, reported in 2021, had a capacity of 110 million barrels.
(Reporting by Reuters Staffeding by Shri Navaratnam)
