The world oil markets are rocky again today, with news that China's imports of crude have fallen 23% in May and also that Chinese exports are down for the third month in a row.
Meanwhile, US output due to fracking is continuing so there will be a huge oil glut this year. OPEC seems no nearer to heeding its £30 million barrels a day output target as nations like Nigeria and Venezuela remain desperate for hard currency.
Meanwhile, there is more to the China story than meets the eye. According to a good source of mine, there was a helicopter crash in central China last month, the helicopter was flashy Eurocopter and it turns out it was unregistered.
A quick check found 25 other unregistered copters all sold to scion of Oil executives in China's major oil companies. And shortly thereafter the investigations came. The discovery of a chain of executives taking big bribes to buy oil at expensive prices (or cheap, with loaded commissions).
If this sounds far fetched enough the sums allegedly stolen I won't even type - its just too fantastical.
However, I note this was last month and then the following month imports of crude have collapsed. A nice co-incidence no doubt?
