China's Petroleum Market in the 1990s: Review and Challenges to its Refining Industry

Abstract

On the basis of reviewing China's petroleum market in the early 1990s, this paper examines some critical issues facing the country's refining industry. China's crude oil production has stagnated in recent years, whereas oil demand and oil imports have increased rapidly since the early 1990s. For the first time since 1960s, China became a net oil importer in 1993. Although the total capacity of China's refining industry is impressive, the overall refinery utilization rate has been considerably low owing to the inherited dispersed and poorly coordinated refining system, and inadequate domestic crude oil supply. In addition, the industry is confronting several major critical challenges, mainly, changing demand pattern, worsening crude quality, and tightening product specifications.