China is refining more oil than the US for the first time

[thackney]

China is refining more oil than the US for the first time
https://qz.com/1986105/china-is-refining-more-oil-than-the-us-for-the-first-time/
March 19, 2021

The US, home to more oil refineries than any other country, lost its title to China as the world’s largest refiner of raw crude oil in 2020. China began refining more crude oil into gasoline and other products for the first time during the pandemic, according to new data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and it has largely remained in the lead.



The upset is largely due to the pandemic-related drop in demand for gasoline and jet fuel in the US, EIA reported. With fewer customers, low prices, and much less crude as US producers curbed drilling, refiners had little reason to operate. But Chinese oil refiners were primed to respond in the opposite way to oil price fluctuations: When oil prices fall, the government pays Chinese refiners to ramp up production. So while the pandemic-related refining stall in China was short-lived, by the time oil prices hit a record low in April 2020, refining activity had surged ahead of the US for the first time.

That’s a bad omen for the world’s plastic pollution crisis. China is eager to lower costs for virgin plastic production (rather than using recycled materials), and the pandemic gave that effort a big boost. China currently has at least four major new refineries under construction, and up to 80% of that planned capacity will be dedicated to producing plastic feedstocks like ethylene and propylene by 2025....

[thackney]

China to surpass U.S. as world’s largest oil refiner in 2021
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/11/20/china-to-surpass-us-as-world-s-largest-oil-refiner-in-2021
1/22/2020

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled the plug on its Convent refinery in Louisiana. Unlike many oil refineries shut in recent years, Convent was far from obsolete: it’s fairly big by U.S. standards and sophisticated enough to turn a wide range of crude oils into high-value fuels. Yet Shell, the world’s third-biggest oil major, wanted to radically reduce refining capacity and couldn’t find a buyer.

As Convent’s 700 workers found out they were out of a job, their counterparts on the other side of Pacific were firing up a new unit at Rongsheng Petrochemical’s giant Zhejiang complex in northeast China. It’s just one of at least four projects underway in the country, totaling 1.2 million barrels a day of crude-processing capacity, equivalent to the U.K.’s entire fleet.

The Covid crisis has hastened a seismic shift in the global refining industry as demand for plastics and fuels grows in China and the rest of Asia, where economies are quickly rebounding from the pandemic. In contrast, refineries in the U.S and Europe are grappling with a deeper economic crisis while the transition away from fossil fuels dims the long-term outlook for oil demand....

[thackney]

Cheap Chinese petroleum drives refineries out of Australia
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/Cheap-Chinese-petroleum-drives-refineries-out-of-Australia
March 9, 2021

American and European oil majors look to shut refining facilities in Australia amid an influx of cheaper petroleum products from China, raising concerns in Canberra about the growing dependence on imports.

ExxonMobil said in February it will close the Altona refinery near Melbourne, citing factors including "the competitive supply of products into Australia." The company will convert the site into an import terminal for petroleum products, though no time frame was given for the transition.

This came after BP in October announced the planned closure of its Kwinana refinery in Western Australia after 65 years.

"The continued growth of large-scale, export-oriented refineries throughout Asia and the Middle East has structurally changed the Australian market," the company said, calling the plant "no longer economically viable."...

[catfish1957]

For those interested this is also the trend for almost all petrochemicals now

I can remember one market trend back in my working days, the spot price of paraxylene for chinese import was less than domestic manufacturing.  These things will start accelerating, considering the Chicoms standards on Safety, Health, and Environmental designs allow for a competitive advantage.

Also, bears mentioning that the Chicoms have just did a JV with the Canadians (post XL) for building addtional refining capacity.