WTI Rose as China is Incraesing its Stockpiles

China is hoarding crude at the fastest pace in at least a decade, shielding itself from supply disruptions and helping keep prices above $100 a barrel.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is building

stockpiles as his nation clashes with Vietnam over resources in the South China Sea and faces potential risks to oil sales from Russia, Africa and the Middle East because of sanctions and violence.

The purchases are helping drive oil prices higher, according to Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. As China’s thirst for crude grows with the expansion of its emergency stockpiles and refining, the International Energy Agency estimates that the Asian nation is poised to surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest oil consumer by 2030.

China bought more than 600,000 barrels a day of surplus crude from January to April. The surplus supplies are calculated by subtracting refinery runs from the combined total of net imports and domestic production.

U.S. crude production rose 77,000 barrels a day to 8.46 million last week, the Energy Information Administration said today. Output reached 8.47 million barrels a day in the week ended May 23, the most since October 1986, according to the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm.

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