China Has 16 Days Supply of Oil (The US Has 26 Days)

I posted this yesterday.

With reports today that US weekly supply number was also down, I thought it important to post again.

"Six months ago, China had enough fuel on hand to meet more than 36 days of demand. Today, inventories would only meet 16 days, and that number is falling fast."

Source: Wall Street Journal

Today's weekly oil summary can be found here. When you get there, click on the Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 3.3 million barrels from the previous
week. At 364.9 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above
the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

We're still swimming in crude oil and yet price of oil continues to rise, even as dollar strengthened. I still go back to the fact that China used to have 36 days of fuel on hand; now, inventories would meet only 16 days. Remember this article in The (London) Independent: China's Resources Grab, October 2, 2010.

(Strict rationing could significantly stretch out those inventories. Global recession? Think what strict rationing in China would lead to.)

By the way, the US has 26 days of crude oil supply, the most in past two years; when I followed this stat in the past, the number was generally 22 days +/- 2 days.