• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 7 minutes Energy Armageddon
  • 11 minutes Russia Says Europe Will Struggle To Replace Its Oil Products
  • 38 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 19 hours America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 4 days Cummins showcases 15L fuel-agnostic engine platform; hydrogen, diesel, biogas 16 March 2023
  • 11 days Gazprom and Rosneft super result
  • 5 days *****5 STARS - "The Markets are Rigged" by The Corbett Report

Breaking News:

Time To Buy The Oil Dip: Goldman Sachs

Canada’s Crypto Boom And The Energy Concerns It Raises

Canada’s Crypto Boom And The Energy Concerns It Raises

The rise of cryptocurrency mining…

Explaining The Kurdistan Oil Outage

Explaining The Kurdistan Oil Outage

The Kurdistan oil outage has…

Irina Slav

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

More Info

Premium Content

Chinese Oil Demand Growth To Slow Down This Year

China’s crude oil demand growth could slow down this year to 4.2 percent from 2017, versus 5.5 percent last year, S&P Platts analysts have estimated. The China Oil Analytics division of the agency estimates that this year, demand will grow by half a million bpd, which is in line with estimates made by the research institutes of China’s biggest oil companies CNPC and Sinopec.

Last year, China turned into the world’s top oil importer as its crude oil imports exceeded those of the U.S. on a monthly basis for most of the year. Now Chinese crude oil import volumes have also surpassed the American imports in annual figures, as it brings more refining capacity online and fills strategic inventories, while domestic oil production continues to decline.

January crude imports jumped to a new record, at 9.57 million barrels daily, but forecasts of slower GDP growth are making analysts wary of overly optimistic projections.

Sanford Bernstein is also skeptical about oil demand growth in the world’s top consumer. Higher oil prices and weaker GDP growth will inevitably lead to weaker oil demand,” the research firm said. "The focus is shifting from quantity to quality and (from) economic growth to environment. This means energy consumption would be capped due to improving energy efficiency and tight environmental control."

As part of these environmental control measures, China is raising its natural gas consumption—and naturally, imports. In December, gas imports hit an all-time high, as the country fought a cold spell amid efforts to reduce its dependence on coal in favor of natural gas. At 7.89 million tons—including pipeline flows and LNG shipments—the December figure beat the previous record, booked in November, by 20 percent.

Local production is also on the rise—at the fastest rate since 2014—but it is still lagging behind demand growth. This means more pipeline gas and LNG imports, too, seen at 114 billion cubic meters, including both pipeline supplies and LNG.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Vishwas on July 03 2018 said:
    OPEC + US + Russia just making up demand to sustain high oil prices. Oil demand may be negative in 2019.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News