Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Oil prices leapt $5 per barrel as the speed of China's reopening and its sudden desperate thirst for oil took the market by surprise. “We expected Chinese crude demand to grow by about 900,000 barrels per day this year, but Chinese refiners are telling us the number could be as much as 2 million b/d,” flagged Energy Aspects chief oil analyst Amrita Sen at a Mideast conference this week. “We are already starting to see green shoots with regards to demand for gasoline and jet,” Sen added. China reopened its international borders for the first time in three years last weekend, not long after Beijing suddenly abandoned its long-standing "zero-Covid" policy. Speaking at the same conference, Vitol's head of Asian trading Mike Muller admitted the market had not been ready for China's sudden return.
