CNPC: China's crude imports could grow by 1% in 2025

According to a report released by the state-owned energy giant China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China's crude imports are expected to rise just 1% in 2019. The country's reliance upon oil imports, however, is projected to stay at 70% between 2026-2030.

The Economics and Technology Research Institute of CNPC (ETRI) estimated that the world's second largest refining industry will import 559 millions metric tons crude oil in this year. This is equivalent to approximately 11,18 million barrels a day.

Analysts believe that the projected marginal increase reflects their view that China's demand for crude oil is at its peak, after a rare drop in 2024. The analysts also think it is possible that Chinese fuel demand peaked in 2023 due to rapid vehicle electrification as well as a slowing economic growth.

CNPC reported that China's projected refinery output for 2025 will be 733.75 millions metric tons (14.68million bpd), which is a 3.6% rise compared to 2024.

The state-owned company said that the demand for natural gas is expected to increase 6.2% to reach a record of 448.5 billion cubic meters this year.

The local gas production is expected to increase by 2.9% annually over the next five years, starting in 2026. It will reach 300 billion cubic metres in 2030.

CNPC, without mentioning a comparable, said that the country's dependency on natural gas imports will decrease to 45% over a five-year period. China is the largest importer in the world of liquefied gas. Imports were up 7.7% last year at 76.65 millions tons. This was a record high for three years. Reporting by Colleen Cao and Ella Cao from Beijing; writing by Chen Aizhu from Singapore; editing by Jason Neely & David Evans

(source: Reuters)