Page 7 - AsianOil Week 24

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SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
from a floating LNG (FLNG) design to an onshore liquefaction plant. The government insisted on an onshore development, a er the partners proposed raising the FLNG’s capacity from 2.5m t/y to 7.5m t/y, claiming that it would provide a bigger boost to the local economy. is prompted Inpex to raise the project’s proposed capacity to the current 9.5m t/y.
Indonesian media reported in March that the government had been pushing the partners to raise domestic supply to 475m cf/d (13.45m cm/d), but Jakarta has clearly backtracked from this position.
Inpex and Shell’s contract for Abadi was extended by 27 years to 2055 to account for delays and the higher investment required to
The Abadi eld will produce 9m t/y of LNG. Image: Inpex
bring an onshore project to fruition. e ter- minal is anticipated to come onstream between 2025 and 2030.v
EAST ASIA
Chinese refinery runs fall in May
PERFORMANCE
A weakening in industrial fuel demand has been blamed for the depressed throughput rates
CHINA’S refinery runs shrank 2.8% year on year in May to 51.9m tonnes (12.27m barrels per day), according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data published on June 14.
e gure was down from a record high of 52.1m tonnes (12.73m b/d) in April and was also the lowest daily run rate in four months. Crude throughput in the rst ve months, meanwhile, rose 4.4% year on year to 259.49m tonnes (12.6 million b/d).
A weakening in industrial fuel demand has been blamed for the depressed throughput rates. Industrial growth in May reached just 5%, its lowest level since 2002.
e Chinese automotive sector recorded an 11th straight month of declining new car sales in May, owing to weaker consumer con dence. Reuters quoted SIA Energy senior director Seng Yick Tee as saying “ e negative growth in the auto-making industry is slowing China’s incre- mental fuel demand.”
Reflecting the slump in the refinery runs, crude imports declined by 8% month on month in May to 40.23m tonnes (9.51m b/d), according
to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). April imports had hit an all-time high of 43.73m tonnes (10.68m b/d), helping shipments for the rst ve months expand by 7.6% on the year to 205m tonnes (9.95m b/d).
While imports and re nery runs were both down, oil production in May expanded by 1% year on year to 16.23m tonnes (3.84m b/d). Production for the rst ve months of the year inched up 0.7% on the year earlier to 79.29m tonnes (3.85m b/d).
The central government has directed the country’s developers to produce more crude to help slow a growing dependence on foreign oil supplies, which has le the country increasingly exposed to oil price shocks.
Natural gas output climbed by 12.9% in May to 14.4bn cubic metres (cm) and by 9.8% in the rst ve months to 72.5bn cm. LNG and pipeline imports climbed by 3.6% year on year to 7.56m tonnes in May and by 13.95% to 39.54m tonnes in the January to May period. e GAC only records imports in tonnes.v
Week 24 19•June•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7