Domestic oil demand rose 2.6% in November, the second highest average daily demand this year

International Energy Information Corporation Platts recently released its monthly report, saying that in November, China’s apparent oil demand was 39.08 million tons (954 million barrels per day), up 2.6% year-on-year, which is the second highest daily average demand since the beginning of the year. .

The report issuer calculates the apparent or implied oil demand in China based on the crude oil throughput of domestic refineries and the net imports of petroleum products as reported by the China Customs and the National Bureau of Statistics.

According to this analysis, the experts believe that the increase in oil demand last month was to meet the recent surge in diesel demand and to supplement rapidly-decreasing diesel inventories. As a result, major refineries are increasing their refining output.

The report shows that domestic oil companies’ refining production reached a record value in November, which also made oil demand in the current month reach 9.54 million barrels per day, only slightly lower than the level of 9.58 million barrels per day in February this year. According to statistics from the Statistics Bureau, in November China's refinery processed 37.87 million tons of crude oil, an average of 925 million barrels per day, an increase of 3.3% year-on-year. At the same time, diesel production for the month reached 14.13 million metric tons, which was 5.2% higher than in October. This was the second consecutive monthly increase after the decline in August and September production.

The reporter noted that the NDRC had twice requested the state-owned companies to ensure the full supply of coal, oil and natural gas in the winter and next spring at the departmental work meeting earlier this month, which means that the refinery production this month may continue to remain high.