ANALYSIS – China's power woes give little impetus to oil prices

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s winter power supply crunch, the fourth in six years, is unlikely to trigger major oil imports like those seen five years ago.

In 2004, during the country’s worst power shortage in decades, hundreds of small firms and factories in booming eastern and southern province export hubs were behind a surge in China’s diesel imports as they snapped up stand-alone generators.

This time, it’s the economically less developed central provinces that have been worst hit as a bitter cold snap sent residential power consumption surging, and unlike five years ago there is a surplus of generating capacity.

With power shortages much less severe than in previous supply crunches, the most that analysts expect is a slight dip in the country’s burgeoning diesel exports.

This is assuming the weather doesn’t worsen ahead of the Chinese New Year in mid-February, which would further strain already perilously low stockpiles of coal, the fuel for almost four-fifths of China’s electricity supply.

Reuters