China’s NDRC reports slow growth in China’s oil demand

Domestic policy constraints and global uncertainties have resulted in slow growth in China’s apparent oil demand during the third quarter. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that apparent oil consumption posted a 9.3% increase in the first quarter, a 5% increase in the second quarter and a 3.5% increase in the third quarter from a year earlier. Consumption during the first quarter rose by 10.2% compared to 7.2% in the first half. It increased only by 5.9% in the first three quarters. This slump was also reflected in oil refining. Refiners processed a total of 99.72 million tons of crude oil from July to September, an increase of only 1.2% from a year earlier. Gains from April to June this year were 3.3% and 9.4% from January to March 2011. Based on NDRC’s crude throughput figures from July to August, it appears that daily runs in September were the lowest for this year. According to NDRC, inventories for refined oil products fell from a record high of 15.61 million tons at the end of February to 11.48 million tons at the end of September. But the figures suggest that refiners drew down stocks in the past months when they slowed down refining activities, and therefore, deceleration in oil demand growth may not be as high as the figures show. (October 15, 2011)