Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that China is said to start buying crude for its Strategic Petroleum Reserves, in light of the recent sharp drop in the prices.
“China is moving forward with plans to buy up oil for its emergency reserves after the epic crash in oil prices over the past few weeks.
Beijing has asked departments to quickly begin filling tanks and options to lock in the current low prices in the market.
Beijing may use commercial space for storage as well, in addition to its state owned reserves.”
Meanwhile, a Gulf source was reported as saying that Saudi Arabia supports cooperation between oil producers to stabilize the oil market.
Crude oil prices fell as the prospect of weaker demand and rising supply hit home, strategists at ANZ Bank apprise.
“Saudi Arabia boosted its output by 290,000b/d to 10mb/d in March, according to a survey by Bloomberg. It is understood that Saudi Aramco is now supplying more than 12mb/d. Overall OPEC production rose by 150kb/d to just over 28mb/d.”
“Russia indicated it won’t be boosting supply just yet. Government officials were reported to say that a lack of profitability would keep most producers from increasing output for the moment. This saw Brent crude fall sharply.”