BIZCHINA / Petroleum Products
Petroleum market to be tight in 2nd half
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-09 17:36
Although China's apparent consumption of petroleum had hardly increased
in the first half of this year, its market demand for petroleum still
kept rising, and the petroleum market might face more pressure, experts
said Monday.
According to figures released by the economic and technological research
center of China National Petroleum Corporation, from January to May,
China's total apparent consumption of petroleum reached 133.249 million
tons, a year-on-year increase of merely 0.11 percent.
Apparent consumption refers to the output volume plus net import or minus
net export, which doesn't reflect the change of inventories. When the
stockpile drops, apparent consumption is less than the actual amount of
consumption.
Gong Jinshuang, senior engineer of the economic and technological
research center of CNPC, said the growth rate of actual demand for
petroleum remained at 5.6 percent in the first six months, much higher
than the apparent consumption, making the stockpiles of crude oil and
finished oil products fall to a large extent.
Gong pointed out that several factors will continue to drive the demand
for petroleum in the next six months. A high economic growth rate, the
rising trend of fixed asset investment, and increasing added value of
heavy industry and of some main chemical industrial products are among
them.
Besides, the shortage of electricity due to the hot weather of the
country in the third quarter also contributes to the hiking demand for
petroleum.
Due to rocketing oil prices, the import of crude oil and finished oil
products will decrease. The price gap between domestic and international
processed oil products will lead to a drop in the output of oil products
too. With limited resources, the growth rate of crude oil cannot reach a
high level, he said.
These factors will increase pressure on the supply of petroleum in the
second half of this year, said Gong.
He suggested that based on the expected supply and demand in the
petroleum market, the government should keep the domestic petroleum
market relatively stable by using macro-regulation measures such as
pricing.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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