[ROCKMAN]

Perhaps a bit lower oil imports eventually. Classic good news/bad news: China may reduce its future coal burning. Bad news: it will significantly increase the amount of NG it burns.

“China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) has received approval for a mega project to turn coal into natural gas. Fu Chengyu, the chairman of the nation's second-largest oil and gas producer and the world's second-biggest crude oil refiner, said the project had received "all necessary government approvals", but the budget was not known. The project involves the construction of an 8,000-kilometre main gas pipeline. Five branch pipelines will also be built.

Coal gasification subjects coal to high heat and pressure to turn it into gases, which are processed into natural gas and other by-products. The total cost of the pipeline would exceed 100 billion yuan (HK$126 billion), Fu said, adding Sinopec would lead the project and be responsible for investing in 8 billion cubic metres of annual gas production and transmission capacity. Total capacity will be 30 billion to 36 billion cubic metres.
A research report warned of risks that higher carbon-dioxide emission costs in the future would cut returns. It said the mainland would see a five to seven-year boom in coal-gasification projects construction, as Beijing has approved a large number of such projects that are projected to see gas output rise from 0.3 bcm this year to 55 bcm in 2020.

While there have been proposals to capture carbon dioxide to be emitted, use it and store it underground, analysts at UBS said: "We do not believe any of the proposals are sufficient to handle the scale of carbon dioxide that may be ultimately discharged by the new coal-to-gas and coal-to-chemicals projects."

So much better than burning more coal but still represents a huge increase in GHG emissions.

[Graeme]

Data Show China Passing U.S. as Biggest Oil Importer

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')hina has achieved another world-beating status its leaders don’t want: Biggest oil importer.

China passed the United States in September as the world’s biggest net oil importer, driven by faster economic growth and strong auto sales, according to U.S. government data released this week.

Chinese oil consumption outstripped production by 6.3 million barrels per day, which indicates the country had to import that much to fill the gap, the Energy Information Administration said this week.

“China’s steady growth in oil demand has led it to become the world’s largest net oil importer, exceeding the United States in September 2013,’” the agency said in a report. “EIA forecasts this trend to continue through 2014.”

China’s economic boom has raised incomes and increased its global influence. But it also has spurred demand for imported oil and gas, which communist leaders see as a strategic weakness.

Rising auto ownership has left China’s cities choking on smog and added to pressure on Beijing from its own public to curb pollution and from other nations to rein in surging greenhouse gas emissions.



American demand for oil and other liquid fuels rose by about 110,000 barrels per day, or just 0.6 percent, in the first nine months of this year, due partly to improved engine efficiency, the EIA said. It said consumption is forecast to fall by 0.4 percent next year.

Overall, the United States still should be the biggest oil consumer next year at about 18.7 million barrels per day, down from its peak of 20.8 million in 2005, according to the EIA. It said China’s consumption next should be about 11 million barrels per day.

[kublikhan]

Japan passes US to become 2nd largest fossil fuel importer. US slips to third place. China is the largest fossil fuel importer.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')apan ranked as the second largest net importer of fossil fuels in the world in 2012, trailing only China. It ranks as the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and second largest importer of coal behind China. Japan has limited domestic energy resources, and the country meets less than 15% of its own total primary energy use from domestic sources. Because of its limited natural gas resources, Japan relies on imports to meet nearly all of its natural gas needs. In 2012, Japan consumed 4.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, up 50% from the 2000 level. More than 95% of Japan's gas demand is met by liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. Japan, the world's largest LNG importer in 2012, accounted for 37% of global LNG demand in 2012, up from 33% in 2011.

Coal
Domestic coal production ended in 2002, and Japan began importing all of its coal, primarily from Australia. Japan imported 204 million short tons of coal in 2012, a slight increase from 194 million short tons in 2011. Japan had been the largest global coal importer for three decades until 2011, when, according to World Coal Association estimates, China surpassed Japan by a narrow margin. By 2012, this gap widened as Chinese coal imports grew.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s China’s oil demand continues to exceed production, oil imports have increased significantly over the past decade, reaching record highs in 2013. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates, the country constituted nearly a third of global oil demand growth in 2013.

China consumed an estimated 10.7 million bbl/d of oil in 2013, up 380,000 bbl/d, or almost 4 per cent, from 2012. In 2009, China became the second-largest net oil importer in the world behind the US, and average net total oil imports reached 6.2 million bbl/d in 2013. Notably, for the fourth quarter of 2013, China actually became the largest global net importer of oil.

EIA projects that China is likely to surpass the US in net oil imports on an annual basis in 2014. The country’s oil demand growth hinges on several factors such as domestic economic growth and trade, power generation, transportation sector shifts and refining capabilities. The consumption is expected to rise through 2014 at a moderate pace to reach approximately 11.1 million bbl/d and its net oil imports is likely to touch 6.6 million bbl/d compared to 5.5 million bbl/d for the US, as per EIA estimates.
Scenario Sees Diversified Oil Sources

Substantial oil demand growth and geopolitical uncertainties have increased pressure on China to import higher volumes of oil from various sources. To ensure adequate oil supply, the country has diversified its sources of crude oil imports in recent years. It imported 5.4 million bbl/d of crude oil on an average in 2012, rising 7 per cent from 5.1 million bbl/d in 2011, according to China’s customs data and FACTS Global Energy (FGE).

Crude imports now outweigh domestic supply and they made up over half of total oil consumption in 2013. EIA expects China to import over 66 per cent of its total oil requirements by 2020 and 72 per cent by 2040 as demand is expected to grow faster than domestic crude supply.

[ROCKMAN]

And another important factor to consider beside oil/NG imports: refined product imports. Latest numbers I could find for China: 2011 – 1.57 million bbls/day. That’s about 7.3% of the global volume. Not huge but consider all the EU countries combines import about 38%. And Japan imports about 4% and the US about 5.5%. So as a stand-alone country China was the leading product importer even 3 years ago.

But that’s just in recent years. And in the future? China has developed significant refinery JV’s with a number of major oil exporters such as the KSA and Nigeria. China will be able to sell their share of those products to EU customers or anyone else they chose. Or they may decide to ship every bbl back to China. Again it’s worth remembering that very few global oil importers burn oil…they consume refinery products.

[Subjectivist]

I didn't even think of product imports, does anyone do a compilation of all energy imports? Otherwise we will only have partial data to make our wild guesses from...

[Tanada]

The most recent graph I could find this morning for China oil imports is below, does anyone have a more up to date version they could post?

[Subjectivist]

Anyone have current figures for how much every country imports around the planet? America and China are one and two, but last I heard India was growing rapidly and working its way up the list.

[kublikhan]

Here's the top 3 with the most recent data. India is still in a distant 3rd place.

gross imports = total oil imports
net imports = gross imports - exports

Oil imports:
China: 7.77 mmbpd gross imports 6.08 mmbpd net imports
US:10.2 mmbpd gross imports 4.9 mmbpd net imports
India: 4.45 mmbpd gross imports 3.1 mmbpd net imports

Other countries can be found here. The data is older though and it looks likes its only gross imports, no net import info.

[Tanada]

I find this list slightly puzzling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... il_imports

Not because the information is from such a scatter shot of dates, but because the only 'region' listed separately in the EU. Perhaps it is just me but I would find it useful to see continental style regions listed in addition to the EU, North America, Asia, Africa and South America. With the exception of Antarctica that has only researchers and Australia that is a single country continent each of the others has a mix of importers and exporters. Asia for example has China, India, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines which rank 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in imports. On the other side of the coin Asia also has Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, the worlds largest exporting countries. So where does Asia fall in the total imports/exports metric?

[shortonoil]

"China passed the United States in September as the world’s biggest net oil importer, driven by faster economic growth and strong auto sales, according to U.S. government data released this week."

China is also the world's largest exporter of money; capital out flows from China are now more than $1 trillion per year, or about 10% of its GDP. China is hemorrhaging to death rapidly. It doesn't look likely that China's petroleum demand growth will continue for very long. Other Asian nations appear to be experiencing the same phenomena. As Asian demand declines so also will world production, and production accounts for the largest part of world demand. It is also the single largest percentage of world GDP. Once production begins to fall it will have entered a negative feedback loop that will continue to feed upon itself.

http://www.thehillsgroup.org/

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', 'H')ere's the top 3 with the most recent data. India is still in a distant 3rd place.

gross imports = total oil imports
net imports = gross imports - exports

Oil imports:
China: 7.77 mmbpd gross imports 6.08 mmbpd net imports
US:10.2 mmbpd gross imports 4.9 mmbpd net imports
India: 4.45 mmbpd gross imports 3.1 mmbpd net imports

Other countries can be found here. The data is older though and it looks likes its only gross imports, no net import info.

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'I') find this list slightly puzzling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... il_imports

Not because the information is from such a scatter shot of dates, but because the only 'region' listed separately in the EU. Perhaps it is just me but I would find it useful to see continental style regions listed in addition to the EU, North America, Asia, Africa and South America. With the exception of Antarctica that has only researchers and Australia that is a single country continent each of the others has a mix of importers and exporters. Asia for example has China, India, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines which rank 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in imports. On the other side of the coin Asia also has Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, the worlds largest exporting countries. So where does Asia fall in the total imports/exports metric?

[Tanada]

China imports as of February this year from the EIA,



Anyone claiming massive demand destruction is clearly using some funky data.

[ROCKMAN]

T - The thread title is a tad misleading. A better title would be "China's internal consumption of imported oil greatly exceeds that of the US". Once imported oil lands in the US it becomes indistinguishable from domestic oil with respect to the stats. Especially when heavy oil imports are blended with lighter domestic oil production. In recent years US exports of refinery products have surged to very high levels. We now export more the 4 million bopd in the form of refinery products. The focus should be on the net imports CONSUMED in the US.

Bottom line: the US is not "consuming" nearly as much oil as is commonly reported. Those consumption stats include oil being "consumed" by our refineries and then exported in the form of products.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly and Weekly Petroleum Status Report, China General Administration of Customs, based on Bloomberg, L.P. Note: December U.S. imports derived from weekly crude oil imports. China surpassed the United States in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, importing 8.4 million barrels per day (b/d) compared with 7.9 million b/d for the United States. China had become the world’s largest net importer (imports minus exports) of total petroleum and other liquid fuels in 2013. New refinery capacity and strategic inventory stockpiling combined with declining domestic oil production were the major factors contributing to the recent increase in China’s crude oil imports. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly and Weekly Petroleum Status Report, China General Administration of Customs, based on Bloomberg, L.P. Note: December U.S. imports derived from weekly crude oil imports. In 2017, 56%

[kublikhan]

US net oil imports continue to fall sharply. US slips to 5th largest net petroleum importer. It falls behind India, Japan, and South Korea.


$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'Oil & oil product imports by country(million barrels per day)
Country Gross Net
China 10.2 9.0
India 5.0 3.8
Japan 3.7 3.1
S Korea 3.6 2.0
US 9.7 1.6')

Sources:
China:
China Petroleum Imports & Exports

India:
India Petroleum Imports
India Petroleum Exports

Japan:
Japan Petroleum Imports & Exports

South Korea:
South Korea Crude Oil imports
South Korea petroleum product imports
South Korea petroleum product exports

United States:
US Gross Petroleum Imports
US Net Petroleum Imports

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', 'U')S net oil imports continue to fall sharply. US slips to 5th largest net petroleum importer. It falls behind India, Japan, and South Korea.


$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'Oil & oil product imports by country(million barrels per day)
Country Gross Net
China 10.2 9.0
India 5.0 3.8
Japan 3.7 3.1
S Korea 3.6 2.0
US 9.7 1.6')