Chinese imports of crude oil reached a new record during November, surpassing the record that was achieved set in October. Namely, China’s crude oil arrivals increased by 8.5% in comparison with the same period last year. This is the first time China imports more than 10 million bpd.
Specifically, as stated above, China surpassed October’s record on heavy purchasing from private refiners and try-ups of new mega-refineries.
According to Reuters, the record Chinese imports set was to 10.43 million barrels per day, highlighting the first time China achieved to import up to 10 million barrels per day. On the contrary, October’s imports reached the 9.61 million barrels per day.
China’s imports on natural gas increased by 25.6% consequently to 9.15 million tonnes in November. The latter is China’s monthly record as china’s energy leaders supported the imports according to higher demands from the second year of a government campaign to alter to eco-friendly fuels for winter heating.
During the first 11 months, China’s imports reached 418.11 million tonnes of foreign crude oil or 9.17 million bpd, making it the leader on imports.
On the time being, there is an increasing demand by new refineries; for instance, the 400.000 bpd project that is powered by Hengli, a private firm in northeast Dalian that conducted test runs the previous month.
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What’s more, Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp will conduct trial runs in the future at some refining units at 400,000 bpd facility off the archipelago city of Zhoushan at the end of 2018, and imported several cargoes of Oman crude in Q4.
On November, Zhejiang Petrochemicals got two VLCCs of crude. In the meantime, Dalian Hengli received 540.000 tonnes of Arab crude the same month.
Finally, according to Refinitiv Oil Research and Forecast, the ‘tea pots’, commonly known as private refiners, purchased 8.57 million – 1.94 million bpd – tonnes of crude in November.
