A Barrel Full

It is unusual to have such big news releases at this time of year, but this one is undoubtedly a big one.
Firms from China, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have won $9.7 billion worth of contracts to develop Turkmenistan’s largest natural gas deposit, government sources in the Central Asian state said on Tuesday.
The […]

One of the biggest question marks over capacity increases in global refining is what will happen to Iran’s various projects. They have 7 projects in all and desperately need more refined products. What they don’t have is money, which is why this news could be very important.
China’s Sinopec  has signed a tentative deal to provide […]

It is a major step forward for foriegn involvlement in China’s refining sector.
ExxonMobil and its partners, Sinopec, Fujian Province and Saudi Aramco, today celebrated the full operation of China’s first integrated refining and petrochemical facility with foreign participation.  
The project was a major expansion and upgrade of an existing facility.
More than $4.5 billion was invested […]

With its fast growing economy, China needs to secure ever growing volumes of raw materials, especially crude oil. Recently its favoured method has been to invest in mineral and oil reserves in Africa, where Chinese investment is welcomed with open arms by cash strapped governments.
Although part of a trend, this is probably the biggest move […]

Yesterday, a small piece of news added to the feeling that all roads lead East.
China secured access to vast oil deposits in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday after the energy-rich Central Asian nation said it had completed the expansion of a major oil pipeline to its eastern neighbour.  
Now Kazakistan has a steady customer and China […]

In these days of slumping consumption and low prices its easy to forget the long term. Over the next decade, China expects its oil import dependency to rise to 60%.
China’s dependency on oil imports is expected to rise to 60% by 2020, theMinistry of Land and Resources said.
Demand will of course rise strongly over the […]