China has secured the world-beating status, the largest net oil importer. In June, crude imports to China jumped 27% year-on-year from May. According to the data from the General Administration of Customs, China imported 29.49 million tons, or 7.2 million barrels per day in June. As a result, China has regained its status from the United States as shipments surged to fill the Asian country’s strategic petroleum reserves. As for the second contender for the title of the top oil importer, it is hot on the heels of China. US crude imports last month averaged 7.08 million bpd, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. “An important driver of strong crude imports has been China’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve program,” said an analyst at Hong Kong-based Citigroup Inc. Meanwhile, several huge storage tanks are being built to meet the needs of the government program. “China will overtake the US as a permanent top crude importer in a year or two,” Amy Sun, an analyst at ICIS China, made a comment. Besides, China’s big appetite was triggered by a slump in global oil prices. Brent, used to account for over half of the world’s oil, is little changed this year after tumbling almost 50% in 2014. Thus, China’s crude imports in the first six months of the year rose by 7.5%, slower than the 10% pace in the same period of 2014. Experts explain it by the overall slowdown in the economic growth. The country’s GDP expanded by 6.8% year-over-year in Q2, according to the median estimate of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. GDP growth in Q1 came in at 7%.
