China cuts refiners’ oil import quotas with first 2019 allowances - SIA
According to four sources with direct knowledge of the matter and documents reviewed by Reuters, China issued its first batch of crude oil import quotas for 2019 at a lower volume than for the same batch a year ago though expectations are for the volumes to climb later this year. The Ministry of Commerce granted quotas totalling 89.84 million tonnes to 58 companies in its first allowances for 2019. This is down from the 121.32 million tonnes issued in the first batch of allowances for 2018, although the sources said Beijing may increase the overall volume for 2019 in a second batch of quotas later this year. Lower import quotas may signal slowing crude demand growth for the first half of 2019 in China, the world’s largest oil importer and second-largest oil consumer.
Zhou Guoxia, a crude oil analyst with consultancy JLC, said that “The market, in general, does not have a upbeat outlook for imports. I think the drop in quota could likely mean easing growth in China’s crude imports in the first half.”
According to the documents and Reuters data, private refiners, also known as teapots, received quotas for 70.65 million tonnes of imports, more than 20 percent lower than the first batch of quotas issued last year.
Seng Yick Tee, analyst at Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy, said that this followed lower consumption of the 2018 quotas. Refiners only used 71 percent of the quotas allocated between January and October 2018, the period that the government used to determine quotas for the first batch of 2019.
One of the four sources with knowledge of the quotas, who works for a private Chinese refiner, said they received about a third of its annual quota in the first batch and expects to get the remainder in a second batch, which Beijing usually issues around September.
Overall though, the start up of new refineries in China in 2019 is expected to raise crude imports to a record, adding 630,000 barrels per day of new demand, 7 percent higher than last year, according to SIA Energy.
Source : Reuters