The costs of competition in China’s oil market
The business models of refining incumbents face disruption from integrated new entrants
Oil market watchers are used to thinking about China as a downstream market—dependent on imports to meet three-quarters of its crude requirements and as a massive market for transport fuels gasoline, diesel and jet. To the extent that we tend to be aware of China as the producer of nearly a third of global manufacturing output, it is usually through indirect association, where a higher PMI might signal stronger demand for diesel or naphtha. But a new generation of mega-refineries coming onstream in China is putting these two worlds on a collision course. New entrants The quest for upstream integration lured private sector textile producers Rongsheng and Hengli into China’s refining sector. H
Also in this section
11 March 2025
Direct air capture is still in its infancy, but organisations are seeking to leverage global collaborations and AI to discover new materials, with an aim of scaling up the technology and cutting costs
11 March 2025
Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria and Kazakhstan all add significant volumes as core OPEC-9 feels the strain of compliance
11 March 2025
Investor certainty key to diversifying country’s oil and gas exports amid fresh talk of improving infrastructure to boost energy security
10 March 2025
Oil sands will be complemented by conventional and shale output growth and supply opportunities improved by the Trans Mountain Pipeline, but the tariff threat remains
