SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - China's stockpiling of oil, which has helped soak up excess global crude production this year, is likely to continue at a similar rate in 2026, the chief strategist for commodity trading house Gunvor (GGL.UL) said on Monday.

Frederic Lasserre, global head of research and analysis at Geneva-based Gunvor, told the APPEC conference on Monday that China's purchases took off in March and the filling rate for its stockpiles is roughly 60%, meaning China has room for more.

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From March, he said, "we started to see a very impressive rate of stockpiling, like close to one million barrels per day," he said.

China, the world's biggest crude importer, has been building up crude oil inventories at a rate of 530,000 barrels per day (bpd) so far this year, Jim Burkhard, global head of crude oil market research at S&P Global Commodity Insights, told the same event.

Its pace of stockpiling marks one of the fastest annual rates of increase, other than 2020, and has played a major role in helping to soak up surplus production, particularly in the second quarter, Burkhard said.

China's total onshore crude oil inventories are at around 1.4 billion barrels, he said.

"That is a very, very large increase, bigger than global oil demand growth," he said.

S&P pegged global oil demand growth at 700,000 bpd for this year, with over half of that for natural gas liquids and biofuels and the remaining 350,000 bpd growth for crude oil.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-maintain-oil-stockpiling-2026-gunvor-strategist-says-2025-09-08/