China's oil thirst offers hope of crude glut relief

Shanghai

CHINA's insatiable appetite for crude is at least one thing oil bulls can count on this year.

The world's biggest commodity consumer may buy 8 per cent more oil from overseas in 2016, taking average purchases to 7.2 million barrels a day, according to the median of seven respondents in a Bloomberg survey including FGE and Energy Aspects Ltd. The country's inbound shipments in the first 11 months of last year increased 8.8 per cent to 6.63 million barrels a day and touched a monthly record of 7.4 million in April, customs data show.