China’s crude refining capacity to meet local market demand by 2015

China’s domestic product oil demand is expected to reach 262 million tons (86.3 million tons of gasoline and 176 million tons of diesel fuel) by 2015, predicts Yang Weijun, the director with the refining and petrochemical department of PetroChina Planning and Engineering Institute. To meet this demand, China’s annual crude oil refining capacity is likely to reach 710 million tons by 2015, from 500 million tons in 2010. However, since China’s major crude production bases are scattered in the Northeast and Northwest, there is an oversupply in these two regions and a supply shortage in East and South China. Thus, there are currently pipeline expansion projects under construction from North-to-South and West-to-East to ease the supply imbalance. Additionally, CNPC, Sinopec, CNOOC and Sinochem are building refineries in East and South China that are supposed to become operational from 2010 to 2012. (September 28, 2009)