OREANDA-NEWS  The problems of the Chinese economy are taking on such a scale that they themselves become one of the main threats to oil prices and do not allow OPEC+ to support them by reducing production. This is reported by Reuters with reference to the statistics of the People's Republic of China.

China's oil imports showed a sixth consecutive monthly drop in October. Compared to the same month last year, the indicator fell by 10 percent — from 11.53 million barrels per day to 10.53 million. In the first ten months, purchases decreased by 3.7 percent to 10.94 million barrels per day, which means the situation is getting worse.

Such a drop is becoming a serious headache for oil exporters, who stubbornly expect Chinese imports to revive. But so far, even OPEC's worst-case forecast looks overly inflated and does not correspond to the real situation.

Separately, it is clear from the refining data that the country is increasing crude oil reserves, and in the future this may further hit demand. At the same time, there is an increase in its own production, partially covering general requests.

However, the main factor influencing oil prices in the material is the rise to power in the United States of Donald Trump. Depending on where he directs his main efforts, the market situation will also change. If he starts a new trade war with China, demand will drop sharply and prices will go down. If harsh measures are imposed against Iran, on the contrary, there may be a shortage of raw materials in the world. In addition, the state of the US oil industry itself is more important.

Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development reported that in October the average cost of the main Russian export grade of Urals oil was $ 64.72 per barrel, which is 20.8 percent lower than in the same period a year earlier.