“During the worst oil crisis in years, the world’s top crude buyer cut imports by 40%, from 11.6 million barrels a day in 2025 to around 7 million by June. Its economy still grew 4.3% last quarter, so weak demand cannot explain it. This was deliberate. Traders now call China the OPEC of oil demand.
Electric cars, high-speed rail and a massive renewables rollout let Beijing throttle imports and lean on that stockpile for another six months. That is why the widely predicted oil glut never crushed prices, and it is why the next price spike arrives whenever Beijing decides to refill.
The oil price is no longer set by OPEC and US shale alone. It is set by China’s storage tanks, and the long-term signal for Big Oil is a shrinking customer.”
China spent years building a 1.2 billion barrel oil stockpile. Now it is using it to take control of the oil price.
During the worst oil crisis in years, the world's top crude buyer cut imports by 40%, from 11.6 million barrels a day in 2025 to around 7 million by June. Its… pic.twitter.com/20f7Oej3vC
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) August 21, 2026