So China prevented oil prices from reaching $100 in 2021. And their idea was simple: since demand is seasonal, and therefore prices are seasonal, I’ll release crude in Q3 and Q4, when demand is very high, then in Q1 of the new year, prices decline, and I’m going to refill.
Well, they planned on that, and then Putin goes into Ukraine [in February 2022] and [oil] prices went through the roof in Q1. So they got stuck. But later, they got lucky, because of the sanctions. This is one of the ironies of the Western sanctions: that they greatly benefited China. Because China was really stuck. Their SPR was very low, their commercial inventories were very low, and they got stuck. But with Western sanctions, they were able to replenish, their SPR and their commercial stocks, in a big way, and now they are waiting