China Stuns Oil Markets with Surprise Crude Build in July

China has surprised oil markets by adding a small volume of crude oil to its inventories in July, despite weak refinery processing and a sharp drop in imports.

The country's surplus crude for July totaled 210,000 barrels per day (bpd), following a period where it drew on stockpiles due to supply constraints caused by the Iran conflict.

China's refiners processed 12.51 million bpd in July, down 15.8% from the same month last year and only marginally above June's throughput of 12.47 million bpd.

This decrease in processing rates was likely a response to China's dramatically cut crude imports since the start of the Iran war, which have dropped by more than 3 million bpd from pre-conflict levels.