According to recent news from Dow Jones, low oil prices may help some of Asia 0010010 #39;s largest economies to regain their economic vitality because they are beginning to walk out of the worst stage of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, economic activity has begun to recover, and oil demand has begun to increase. The economic recovery encountered a period of low oil prices, prompting major oil importers in Asia to increase the purchase of imported oil to enjoy the benefits of low oil prices.
Asia 0010010 #39;s major oil importers make up their positions
China, India, Japan and South Korea are the world 0010010 #39;s major oil importers. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), it accounts for about a quarter of total global consumption.
Since oil prices began to plummet at the end of February, major oil importers in Asia have been buying large amounts of oil. Data from Refinitiv, a data provider, shows:
● China imported 42.6 million tons of crude oil in April, which was basically the same as last year, which is equivalent to about 307 million barrels of oil.
● South Korea imported 14.1 million tons of crude oil in April, a record high.
● Japan imported 13.9 million tons of crude oil in April, the highest level in more than a year.
● In March, India imported 20.3 million tons of crude oil, setting a record high for the country ’s monthly oil imports. But by the end of March, India had entered a national blockade. Yaw Yan Chong, Head of Research at Luft Oil Asia, said that now Indian refineries are forced to shut down production capacity and resell the crude oil they buy to the Asian spot market.
Also facing the problem of insufficient reserves
India ’s Ministry of Petroleum Damendela Pradan said that when crude oil prices plummeted and the US West Texas Intermediate oil fell below zero, Indian refineries were hoarding large quantities of goods. Every corner of India ’s onshore oil storage tanks is already filled with oil, and its onshore gas storage is saturated. The minister said that India has used floating gas storage, and state-owned and private processors currently have 7 million tons of oil tankers at sea, equivalent to more than 50 million barrels of crude oil.
South Korea 0010010 #39;s 0010010 quot;Central Daily 0010010 quot; said on April 22 that South Korea 0010010 #39;s major petrochemical companies are facing the dilemma of nowhere to store crude oil. South Korea 0010010 #39;s 2020 strategic oil reserves were originally planned to be 360,000 barrels, but this year 0010010 #39;s oil imports have been 1.8 times the original plan. Petrochemical companies not only have to find places to store crude oil, but also store excess production of petrochemical products. The vast majority of oil storage facilities are at full capacity or even overloaded.
South Korea ’s largest petrochemical company, SK Energy, said that 34 super-large oil storage tanks originally designed with a reserve of 8.5 million barrels have already stored 12 million barrels of crude oil. Oil tankers are waiting to be unloaded outside the port, and each boat costs 50 million to 100 million won per day.
According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), crude oil equivalent to about one-sixth of the imported volume has entered China 0010010 #39;s strategic oil reserve. From January to March this year, the reserve increased at a rate of 2.1 million barrels per day.
According to industry sources, domestic oil storage inventories are relatively high. Some oil storage companies have signed long-term contracts with oil companies or refineries. Most of the tanks have been leased out, and only limited tanks are used as transit. Driven by arbitrage spreads, some oil traders also rented oil tankers as floating positions.
Domestic companies that purchase a large amount of crude oil are still dominated by 0010010 quot;three barrels of oil 0010010 quot;, and crude oil prices have fallen, but there are not many empty tanks. 0010010 quot;Three barrels of oil 0010010 quot; are integrated upstream and downstream operations. machining. Moreover, crude oil depots are mainly long-term leases, and short-term leases are few.
