The picture that emerges from careful reading of the IEA reports over many months is of a country that is heavily subsidising huge growth in demand for oil to feed the insatiable Chinese economy -- and this has led the IEA to some surprising figures in the August report.
Most importers and refiners of oil and many types of oil products in China are under state control in some way, and domestic product prices are state controlled.
The IEA estimates that at the beginning of July suppliers to the Chinese domestic market were losing 20 dollars per barrel or more on every barrel of gasoil supplied. The average price of a barrel of gasoil on the Singapore market in July was 70 dollars.
The interpretation implied by the IEA data is that, insofar as suppliers are under state control, consumption of oil and of many derivatives -- the essential fuel of the growth of the Chinese economy -- is being subsidised and therefore stimulated at considerable cost by the government itself.

The price controls are leading commercial refiners to stop supplying petrol because at $67 a barrel for crude they're losing up to $20 a barrel. This is leading to petrol shortages and rationing in economically important areas. Allowing the Yuan to appreciate has reduced the price differential and reduced the loss per barrel.

There seems to be massive uncertainty about what's going on in China. What happens if China decides it can't afford to subsidise demand anymore?