Nevertheless, there was a surplus of 570,000 barrels per day in China in September when crude Oil processing data is compared with crude Oil import and domestic crude Oil production data, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.
"China thus once again imported more crude Oil than was needed by refineries for processing. The surplus was smaller than in the previous month, when the implied stockpiling was as high as 1 million barrels per day. For months, reserve purchases have been helping to absorb at least part of the oversupply on the global Oil market."
"The question now is how long these purchases will continue and whether they will be sufficient in volume to noticeably reduce the growing global supply surplus. If this is no longer possible, the Oil market faces the threat of a (further) decline in prices."