Page 8 - AsianOil Week 28 2021

AsianOil EAST ASIA AsianOil

China’s first-half crude imports shrink 3%

PERFORMANCE CHINA’S crude oil imports slumped 3% year for the second half of this year, had weighed on
on year in the first six months of the year to purchases.
260.66mn tonnes (10.55mn barrels per day), “The crackdowns on teapot crude quota
according to General Administration of Cus- trading and the non-compliant crude supply by
toms (GAC) data published on July 13. national oil companies [NOCs] to teapots really
It was the first time January-June oil imports hit the crude imports in June,” SIA Energy Seng
had contracted since 2013, leading to specula- Yick Tee told Reuters this week.
tion that unless OPEC+ can reach an agreement Sublime Consultancy analyst Sang Xiao pre-
then further import cuts from Asia’s biggest buy- dicted that imports would remain muted in July
ers could be on the horizon. and August because of the quota cuts.
“Imports were scaled back as surging prices Even as imports have fallen, however, the
for crude oil have eroded refinery profit mar- country’s downstream sector still managed to
gins,” Eurasia Group said in a note. “If OPEC set a new refinery run record last month.
doesn’t agree to raise supply soon, high oil prices China processed 60.82mn tonnes
will also likely lead to demand destruction in (14.86mn bpd) of oil in June, up from
even more cost-sensitive emerging markets, 14.14mn tonnes in June 2020, according
especially India.” to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data
China imported 40.14mn tonnes (9.81mn published on July 15. Runs in the first half
bpd) of oil in June, far off the record of 12.99mn of this year climbed by 10.7% to 353.35mn
bpd that the country snapped up in June 2020 as tonnes (14.31mn bpd).
it sought to take advantage of bargain basement The jump in processing rates has been attrib-
prices amid the global turmoil caused by the uted to a spate of planned maintenance in the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. second quarter, with industry media outlet S&P
Energy consultancy SIA Energy noted that Platts noting that Sinopec and PetroChina had
the central government’s investigation into been set to bring around 38mn tonnes (760,000
refineries trading crude imports, which had led bpd) of refining capacity online between late
to quotas for the private sector being slashed May and early June.™

Petro Matad wins licence

for Mongolia block

PROJECTS & MONGOLIA-FOCUSED developer Petro
COMPANIES Matad request for a development licence to
Block XX has been approved by the Mongolian
Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry. The
licence runs for 25 years until July 2046, with the
option to extend for two five-year periods.
Petro Matad CEO Mike Buck said: “We are
delighted and honoured to have been awarded
what is only the third such licence ever granted
in Mongolia.”
He added: “We are looking forward to an
extremely active 2022 with the primary goal of
generating revenue from early production at
Heron [field] as soon as possible.”
The approved plan of development will con-
centrate initially on the area of proven reserves
around Heron 1, expanding in phases to target
the estimated 194mn barrels of total in place The company then announced on July 14
resource potential. that it was raising $10mn via a share placement,
After the approval, Petro Matad announced subscription and retail offer that would be used
that it would resume discussions with potential to fund further drilling and start production at
farm-in partners and review funding options to Heron. Petro Matad also wants to raise another
complete the next stage of activity. $2mn by issuing 43mn new ordinary shares.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 28 15•July•2021