Beijing's cut-price oil binge stretches storage tank capacity to limit

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China imported on average 6.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2014 -- the rough equivalent of three VLCC full loads -- with 90 per cent of it seaborne

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Eleven very large crude carriers (VLCC) have been anchored off mainland ports for up to 10 days waiting for storage capacity to free up. Photo: Bloomberg

Jing Yang

Published: 9:45pm, 25 Jan 2015Updated: 8:45am, 26 Jan 2015

Beijing's bid to capitalise on a collapse in oil prices to fill up its petroleum reserves has put storage capacity at full stretch, leaving millions of barrels at sea on board at least a dozen supertankers and raising uncertainty about the pace of imports in coming months.

Eleven very large crude carriers (VLCC) and one suezmax tanker carrying an estimated 23 million barrels of oil between them have been anchored off several mainland ports for between three and 10 days as of Friday, according to vessel tracking data from VesselsValue.com a London shipping consultancy.

The data shows all 11 VLCCs, each with a deck space equivalent of three soccer fields and able to carry two million barrels of crude, were fully laden. So was the smaller suezmax vessel, which can carry more than one million barrels.

The supertankers waiting at Rizhao, Qingdao, Caofeidian, Ningbo and Qinzhou, represent a substantial portion of daily crude supply into the mainland, which is trying frantically to fill commercial and strategic petroleum reserves at a discount in the wake of crude oil's 57 per cent fall to near six-year lows over the last seven months.

China imported on average 6.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2014 - the rough equivalent of three VLCC full loads - with 90 per cent of it seaborne.

Logjams are not uncommon in the winter peak season when heating oil is in demand, but this year's has been compounded by the surge in strategic imports, industry sources told the .