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By Bloomberg

The trading unit of China’s biggest energy company bought a record amount of Middle East crude oil supplies this month on a Singapore trading platform, surpassing the previous high reached in October.

China National United Oil Co. purchased 48 crude cargoes, or 24 million barrels, this month for loading in June on the so- called window used to determine benchmark prices by Platts, a unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc., according to a Bloomberg News survey of traders. In October, it bought 47 cargoes from the region.

Chinaoil, as the trading unit is known, has been making record purchases on the Platts window as crude prices have fallen 44 percent from last year’s high amid a global supply glut. China’s refineries processed oil at a record pace last month, government data showed April 15, while Beijing is expected to make more capacity available to store emergency stockpiles later this year.

“Refinery runs in China are expected to remain high at more than 10 million barrels a day moving forward,” Tushar Tarun Bansal, senior oil consultant at FGE in Singapore, said by phone. “These barrels can be easily absorbed by refineries on such high runs.”

Under the Platts platform, so-called partial cargo deals must be combined into one 500,000-barrel shipment when the same buyer and seller trade 20 of the 25,000-barrel lots in a single month. The seller can choose to supply Dubai, Upper Zakum or Oman crude to the buyer.

Chinaoil will load at least six Upper Zakum shipments and 42 Oman cargoes in June, survey data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Prices of global benchmark crude have fallen as Saudi Arabia has led the resistance to cut output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil, even as the U.S. produced near the fastest pace in more than three decades.

“It looks like demand is increasing, which explains why the Saudis are reluctant to cut supply,” Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at London-based CMC Markets Plc, said by e-mail. “The big question is whether China is stockpiling while prices are low or whether it is actually demand driven.”

Traders report bids, offers and deals to Platts window through e-mails, instant messages and phone conversations in a defined period, which are then used to create end-of-day price assessments for various commodities and used as benchmarks for trade around the world.

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with Platts and other companies in providing energy-market news and information.