China’s oil demand increases to record rates

China’s oil demand surged in February, as leading oil refiners operated at record rate to produce more fuels in response to government calls to supply drought-hit regions. Implied oil demand, a combination of crude oil throughput and net imports of refined oil, increased 10.3% from a year earlier to 9.54 million barrels per day (BPD) in February, only second to the record high in December, according to Reuters. Record crude oil throughput was 9.18 million BPD in January in the run-up to Chinese New Year, up 11.1% from the same period in 2010. However, crude runs are expected to slow down in March due to heavy maintenance requirements and the sustained rally in crude oil prices. China is the world’s second largest consuming nation of implied oil demand. By 2011, the International Energy Agency (IEA) had forecast that China would account for 40% of global oil demand growth of 1.4 million BPD. (March 11, 2011)