Chinese Strategic Petroleum Reserve (buy, dollars, increase, China)

[sterlinggirl]

Does anybody know if they're buying refined diesel for it?

It makes sense that the Chinese would rather put their wealth into filling their reserve than putting it into Dollars that may or may not be worth anything next year. Filling their SPR with refined fuel would be a way to store more wealth in less volume and would minimize their reliance on outside refineries.

The big upswing in diesel demand this year just doesn't seem right to me.

[cdelena]

China is trying to reduce smog for the Olympics and as a result has shut down some coal fired power plants... diesel plants are being used in some cases and has raised imports of fuel.

[sterlinggirl]

They're blaming it on that as well as increased generator usage after the quake, but there have been plenty of cutbacks (airlines for instance) that should have balanced it out somewhat.

[GregW]

I suspect the Chinese and the Arabs will use their dollars to buy American land and minerals. Then we will do the mining and farming for them instead of them doing it for us. We will wind up being their colonies. "Good times a commin"