Top International Energy Story For The Week? Re-Posting -- March 9, 2016

Tweeting now:  China crude oil imports hit record 8 MMbopd in February. Quick: how much crude oil is the US importing each month according to latest figures? If you said 7 MMbopd you were right on target, and paying attention. Or a lucky guess. Reuters has the story.

China's February crude oil imports jumped 20 percent on year to their highest ever on a daily basis, as prices at their lowest in more than a decade drove buying from a group of new importers and state and commercial stockpiling. 

On a daily basis, February's imports also jumped roughly 27 percent from 6.29 million bpd in January.

Can you imagine if we woke up one day and learned Bakken crude oil production increased by almost 30% month-over-month. That's how I see a 27% month-over-month increase in crude oil by China. This is a huge story.

It will be interesting to see how soon (or if) the mainstream media reports this story in the business pages. It will be interesting to see how/if The Wall Street Journal covers this story.

More from the linked story:

China's imports reached a previous record of 7.81 million bpd in December, 2015, closing out 2015 with an average 6.71 million bpd.

The February volumes were more than a million bpd higher than the final estimate by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts, which had expected more deliveries to spill over into March.

March imports are forecast by the Thomson Reuters analysts at under 7 million bpd.

A single swallow does not a spring make.