China stockpiled huge amounts of oil before Iran war
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China has stashed away far more oil than any other country, according to U.S. government data released this week.
Why it matters: The stockpile, which surged last year, is emerging as a strategic advantage as the world faces an oil shock with the Strait of Hormuz largely shut.
The big picture: China is a huge winner in the Iran war due in large part to its positioning on energy, including its oil stockpile.
- It also owns over 70% of global solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle supply chains.
- Those are all seeing a boost as import-dependent countries turn from oil and natural gas to renewables.
Between the lines: "The war was the stress test that Beijing's energy strategy was designed for," Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei wrote in a recent Behind the Curtain column on China.
Driving the news: China's stockpiling surged in 2025 due to several factors, according to a February paper from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies:
- Relatively low oil prices tied to softer demand.
- Rising geopolitical risks, including disruptions tied to sanctions on major suppliers to China like Russia, Venezuela and Iran.
- A new domestic energy law that required companies to hold more reserves.
By the numbers: China added an average of 1.1 million barrels a day of crude to its strategic oil inventories in 2025, which reached nearly 1.4 billion barrels in December, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
- Before the Iran conflict, which began in late February, preliminary government data suggest China had continued to build inventories into this year.
Context: China doesn't report data on its oil inventories, so EIA said it estimated the inventories based on imports, exports, refining and oil inventory data from third-party and official sources.
Catch up fast: The International Energy Agency coordinated the largest-ever release of oil reserves on March 11, making up to 400 million barrels available.
- China is not an IEA member and was thus not part of that release.
The intrigue: The U.S. reserve, which can hold about 714 million barrels, stood at roughly 413 million in December and has slipped to around 409 million after the March release.
- It remains well below capacity after a record 2022 drawdown following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with refilling happening gradually as officials wait for lower prices.
- That's unlikely to happen any time soon with the Iran war raging.
The bottom line: China's moves last year are looking increasingly prescient.
