The world’s biggest crude importer, faced with a growing domestic fuel surplus and a loose tax collecting mechanism, is on a mission to exert more control of the industry and stake its financial claim
China’s government has turned its controlling gaze on its own sprawling oil industry, investigating crude imports by state energy giants and numerous independent refiners.
Last week, the country’s top economic planning agency gave five state-owned companies just two days to report on their historic use of imported oil, part of a broader effort by the world’s largest oil importer to control inbound shipments as domestic supplies swell.
China is the world’s largest crude oil importer and the No.2 consumer after the United States. China’s crude imports surged 7.3% in 2020 – the only major market where oil demand grew during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also on AF: WallStreet Vs the ‘Bros of Reddit’: Your Guide To Meme Stocks
Strong economic growth, new refining capacity and changes in fuel taxes could spur crude imports by 7.2%, or 775,000 barrels per day, higher this year, said Seng Yick Tee, a SIA Energy analyst.
But the country’s refining sector is saddled with overcapacity and excess fuel supplies which Beijing is keen to tackle. Authorities also aim to clamp down on tax evasion, as well as the blending and sale of fuels that do not meet emission standards.
Guangdong province, China’s top oil-consuming region, led the probe into illicit trades of blending fuels in February and detained several people in connection with the investigation.
Beijing is looking into whether Sinopec Group, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Sinochem Group, ChemChina, and China North Industries Group – which together make up more than 60% of China’s total imports – have resold oil to other companies in the country. Also under examination is whether their imports have been processed at refineries under a tolling scheme that reduces the companies’ tax burden.
UNCHECKED FLOWS
The information request is part of a broader probe that Beijing began early this year into a growing domestic fuel surplus and lost tax revenues, partly because of unchecked flows of imported crude oil to refiners that are outside the country’s official quota system.
It follows a separate inspection by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in April of independent refiners in the eastern province of Shandong that had pledged to close ageing, inefficient facilities in return for winning import quotas.
That inspection also covered usage of import quotas. Several independent plants in Shandong were found to have sold quotas to other refiners who were not qualified to process imported crude.
China has, since late 2015, allowed more than 40 independent refiners to process imported crude under a quota system. But smaller plants have been found by the government to be sourcing additional crude oil, and other feedstocks such as diluted bitumen, beyond quota limits, leading to a domestic fuel glut.
HEFTY TAXES
Beijing is to start levying hefty taxes on imports of light cycle oil (LCO), mixed aromatics and diluted bitumen, from June 12, a move that is expected to curb fuel imports and improve local refiners’ domestic sales and profits.
China is expected to release a second batch of crude import quotas in the coming months, and these probes may prompt Beijing to reduce allocated volumes to independent companies.
While this could curb independent buyers’ appetite for more supplies, the state-run firms, which are not subject to quota management, are expected to lead the purchases.
In December last year, China issued the first batch of crude import quotas for non-state companies at 122.59 million tonnes in 2021, up 18% from the first round for 2020.
- Reporting by Reuters
Read more:
AF TV: Beijing casts its gaze further afield in search of gas
China won’t be putting its Greenland ambitions on ice just yet
