The world’s top oil importer, China, could be just years away from its own peak in domestic demand for oil products, Chinese refiners have started to warn, but consumer preferences and government policies about transport electrification and support for EVs are likely to determine whether Chinese domestic oil consumption will peak around 2025.
China’s largest refiner, Sinopec, said at the end of last year that domestic demand for oil products would peak by 2025 due to COVID impacts and the rise of electric vehicles, Argus reported, citing Sinopec’s research think-tank as saying in its annual report.
“China’s oil products will enter a final growth phase before peaking in the next five years,” the Economics and Development Research Institute (EDRI) at Sinopec said, as carried by Argus.
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The breakthrough agreement between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to jointly explore and develop an energy field whose ownership had been disputed for nearly 30 years has cleared the way for the long-anticipated Trans-Caspian pipeline to Europe.
But analysts warn that there may no longer be the demand among European states to meet potential supplies.
The Dostluk field in the Caspian Sea - previously known as Serdar by Turkmenistan and Kapaz by Azerbaijan - had caused serious tensions between the two countries since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Although its exact reserves are unknown, they are estimated at 50-100 million tonnes of oil and 30 billion cubic metres of gas. The amount is not particularly significant - for comparison, gas reserves at Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh field amount to 21 trillion cubic metres – but the long-running dispute had hindered negotiations on a Trans-Caspian pipeline to facilitate Turkmen gas supplies to Europe via Azerbaijan. Dostluk, th
Saudi Arabia’s voluntary output cut lends support to Brent, may breach $70 in 2021
09/02/2021 Argaam Special Share
by Parag Deulgaonkar
Saudi Arabia’s voluntary decision to cut crude production supported prices with Brent likely breaching the $70 mark during the year, Emma Richards, senior industry analyst at Fitch Solutions, told
Argaam.
“The surprise cut from Saudi has undoubtedly given a lift to Brent. Perhaps more importantly, it reaffirms the Kingdom’s strong commitment to the OPEC+ deal and continued close management of the oil market,” she said.
In January, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman announced voluntary cuts to its oil production by additional 1 million bpd in February and March, affirming the move to support oil market and industry.
Markets have since stabilised. Riding the wave of a commodity supercycle , Brent the international benchmark for oil and WTI have each surged 10 per cent since the beginning of 2021. Oil s gains, propelled by recovery in Asia, a softer dollar and vaccination programmes in developed economies, have also been aided by the group s proactiveness.
At the start of the year, Opec linchpin Saudi Arabia, unilaterally decided to implement a 1 million barrel a day cut until March. The oil bloc shelved an earlier plan to bring 2m bpd back to the market and is drawing back 7.2m bpd from the market for three months from January, equivalent to about 7 per cent of global supplies.