Gasoline Cocktails Mix With Data Gaps to Skew China Oil View
- Chinese data underestimating strength of fuel demand growth
- Unrecorded use of off-spec gasoline disguises true consumption
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Tales of the demise of China’s appetite for oil have been greatly exaggerated.
Fuel use grew by about 5 percent in the first half of 2016, according to China’s biggest oil refiner, faster than the 0.4 percent derived from government data. That “official” number is clouded by rising gasoline exports -- some to buyers as far flung as New York -- while drivers back in the world’s biggest energy user rely more on blends that don’t show up in official figures, according to the International Energy Agency, Sinopec Group and Energy Aspects Ltd.