Platts Report: Chinese Oil Demand in April Climbs 12.7% From Year Ago to 8.4 Million Barrels Per Day

HONG KONG, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Platts – China's apparent* oil demand continued to climb at a steady clip from a year ago to reach 35.25 million metric tons (mt) or about 8.43 million barrels per day (b/d) in April, according to a Platts analysis of official data just released. This is 12.7% higher than the corresponding month of 2009.

However, last month's appetite of the second largest oil consumer in the world after the United States remained shy of the all-time high of 8.5 million b/d estimated for February.  

China has been aggressively adding new refining capacity. Also, as some of the country's refineries came back on line from maintenance, total crude throughput reached a historic high of 8.41 million b/d in April. The figure represented a jump of about 17% from a year ago, albeit from a low baseline, as Chinese exports and manufacturing activity had been hard hit in the early part of 2009.  

"China has established a firm pace of economic growth, and its refining industry is riding a wave of new and more efficient capacity, the government's domestic oil pricing reforms, and robust retail consumption at home," said Vandana Hari, Asia news director at Platts.

"There was plenty of skepticism on China's ability to hold on to its growth momentum in the face of the global economic downturn, but that faded away. There is concern once again, that an expected revaluation of the yuan and the monetary tightening that has begun this year could yet derail the Asian giant, but this could prove to be unfounded too," said Hari.

Local media earlier this week cited figures from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) showing a 16.8% rise in April domestic oil products sales to 20.25 million mt. Gasoline sales grew 10.3% on the year to 5.78 million mt or 1.66 million b/d in April, while gasoil sales climbed 18.1% to 13.41 million mt or 3.33 million b/d, the CPCIA data showed.

Meanwhile, China continued to pare its refined products buying on the overseas markets, cutting net oil imports in April to 1 million mt from 2 mt in the corresponding month of 2009.

At the same time, the state-owned oil companies are sending ever increasing volumes of fuel overseas. Though April oil product exports dipped below the March number to 2.63 mt, they represented a 22.3% hike over a year ago.

*Platts calculates China's apparent or implied oil demand on the basis of crude throughput volumes at the domestic refineries and net oil product imports, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics and Chinese customs.

The government releases data on imports, exports, domestic crude production and refinery throughput data, but does not give official data on the country's actual oil consumption figure and oil stockpiles. Official statistics on oil storage are released intermittently.

Platts releases its monthly calculation of China's apparent demand between the 18th and 26th of every month via press release and via its website. Any use of this information must be appropriately attributed to Platts.

For more information on crude oil, visit the Platts website at www.platts.com.  For Chinese-language information on oil and the energy and metals markets, visit http://www.platts.cn. Visit the media center to schedule an interview.

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SOURCE Platts