CHINA is finding oil supplies 14,000 miles (23,000 kilometers) away, aided by the global rout in prices that’s left producers vying for new markets.
PetroChina Co. said it bought Colombian crude for a northern refinery for the first time because it was good value. The transaction underscores how the world’s second-biggest oil consumer is benefiting as producers from the Middle East to Latin America vie for customers in Asia.
Brent oil futures tumbled to the lowest level since 2010 as the highest US output in almost 30 years cuts its consumption of foreign crude. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries biggest producers are reducing prices to defend their market share. China consumed the second-biggest amount of crude on record in September and imported the largest volume ever for that time of year, customs data show.
“China will just look to get the cheapest crude possible from whatever source it can,” Virendra Chauhan, a London-based analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., said by phone on October 21. “I expect a lot more volumes flowing to China in particular.”
The country’s crude imports rose 7.8 percent, to 27.6 million tons, or 6.74 million barrels a day, in September from last year, the data show. The number of supertankers sailing toward China’s ports surged to a nine-month high last week, according to IHS Fairplay vessel-tracking signals compiled by Bloomberg as of October 17.
Colombian shipments
CHINA’S purchases of Colombian crude totaled 7.8 million metric tons from January to September, more than twice the amount a year earlier, customs data showed on October 22. Shipments from Saudi Arabia, its biggest supplier, shrank about 11 percent, to 36.6 million tons, according to the data.
Colombian oil output increased about 10 percent since 2011 and the nation is seeking sales in Asia to compensate for the weakening in short-haul exports as US production increases, said Bernard Leung, a Bloomberg oil strategist in Singapore.
China’s supplies from Colombia cost an average of $94.56 a barrel last month, while Saudi shipments were purchased for $102.30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter, earlier this month reduced the price of its Arab Light crude for Asia to the lowest level since December 2008, sparking speculation that a price war was set to start among members of the Opec. Opec members Kuwait, Iran and Iraq also cut official selling prices this month.
Refining capacity
REFINERS including PetroChina processed 42.02 million tons of crude in September, or about 10.3 million barrels a day, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing. That’s up 9.1 percent from a year earlier and the most since a record 10.5 million in February.
China’s refining capacity will rise 20 percent, to 800 million tons a year by 2020, from about 668 million at the end of this year, China National Petroleum Corp.’s Economic and Technology Research Institute said in a report in January.
Brent crude futures slid 8.3 percent on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange in September, the biggest monthly loss since May 2012. They fell 0.8 percent, to $86.13 a barrel on Friday.
“Chinese buyers are jumping on the opportunity to buy crude on the cheap at the moment,” David Wech, the managing director of JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna, said in an October 17 e-mail. “Refining margins have surely benefited from weak outright crude prices.”
Refineries shut
THE US imported 7.62 million barrels of crude a day in July, 29 percent less than the peak in June 2005, data from the Energy Information Administration show. Shale oil has boosted the country’s crude output to the highest since 1985. European consumption is also shrinking as refineries shut or convert to storage depots at the fastest pace since the 1980s.
Crude that may have previously found a buyer in the US or Europe is now available for Asia and competing with traditional suppliers from the Middle East, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Asia will account for almost 80 percent of global demand growth this year, with China alone responsible for a third, IEA data show.
“The next area we see being backed out if the US production continues growing is some of the Latin American producers such as Colombia and Venezuela,” Chauhan of Energy Aspects said.
PetroChina’s Liaohe refinery processed about 30,000 tons of Colombian crude as of October 20, its parent company, China National Petroleum, said on its web site on October 21. The plant ran 792,000 tons of imported oil last year, or about 15 percent of its total throughput. Suppliers included Russia, Brazil and Venezuela. Mao Zefeng, PetroChina’s Beijing-based spokesman, didn’t answer five calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.
Processed crude
CHINA Petroleum and Chemical Corp.’s Maoming refinery processed crude from Brazil’s Ostra field for the first time last month, the company known as Sinopec said on its web site on September 17. China’s purchases of Russian crude increased by 57 percent in September, the customs data show.
“China will continue to import more crude from Russia next year,” said Wech of JBC. “Imports from Latin America are also likely to increase as Mexican and Venezuelan volumes are gradually eased out of the US Gulf Coast.”