China still thirsty
Forget the rumours, Chinese imports of oil – for refining and strategic storage – are rising again
China's teapot refineries are unexpectedly playing a bigger role in crude imports as the country continues to top up its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) faster than expected. Combining the unexpected burst of activity by these independents with large-scale buying by the state-owned oil giants, analysts expect China to remain an important net importer of crude throughout 2017, despite the firming of oil prices since the Opec deal. Armed with new import licences issued by the National Energy Administration (NEA), in the first six months of 2016 the teapots on average imported a combined 3.23m tonnes of crude a month (about 0.78m barrels a day), roughly double the volumes of 2015. The refiner
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026
