China Weekly Oil Summary: October Products Output Rises

Chinese oil products output in October rose above levels seen in 2022, according to China’s statistics bureau:

• Gasoline up 13.1% y/y to 14.084m mt, Kerosene up 86.9% y/y to 4.55m mt, Diesel up 2.8% y/y to 19.438m mt, Fuel oil up 11.2% y/y to 4.486m mt.
• China’s state-owned refinery run rates increased for the first time in six weeks according to Bloomberg based on OilChem data. State-owned refinery runs rose to 76.84% of capacity in the week to 17 Nov after falling to the lowest since May last week.
• China's small independent refineries expect the government to raise the fuel oil import quota for 2023 by 3mn tons for non-state-owned companies to allow them to bring in more barrels as an alternative feedstock for the remainder of the year, sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights. The annual limit was set at 16.2mn tons at the beginning of the year.
• There are 12 crude-laden VLCC’s offshore Malaysia as of November 14 according to Vortexa – 7 of which are laden with Iranian crude/condensate carrying a combined 12.5mn bbls, suggesting independent refiners in China have access to ample supplies of Iranian crude/condensate.
• China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) considers domestic demand and bulk consumption expansion its number one aim over the next period, according to NDRC spokesperson Li Chao.
• MNI (Beijing) China’s economy will continue its upward recovery into 2024, but external uncertainties and insufficient domestic demand will challenge policymakers, said Liu Aihua, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics.
• President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met yesterday on the margins on the APEC Leaders’ Summit in San Francisco. The bilateral didn’t come with any major accompanying announcements but acted as a checkpoint in a months-long diplomatic effort to dial back tensions.