U.S. media reports that several of China's largest oil companies are increasing domestic drilling activities and signing large -scale transactions overseas, hoping to ensure energy security, which has also led to increasing trade with US sanctions.
The Wall Street Journal reports that according to the forecast of the oil output country, China's demand for crude oil this year may reach 15.6 million barrels per day, about 5%higher than last year.China is the second largest oil consumer country after the United States, so any change in its behavior may have a significant impact on global prices.
After the Chinese economy has experienced repeated control and strict epidemic prevention restrictions, people can travel freely, the factory re -start, and the demand for crude oil has increased accordingly.However, the Chinese government is increasingly seeking alternatives in the global oil market, including expanding domestic drilling scale and signing agreements with countries such as Brazil, Qatar, and Afghanistan.
According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the domestic oil company in China in March was 18.2 million tons, which is the highest level since December 2014.China Ocean Petroleum Co., Ltd., one of the largest national petroleum giants in China, said that a oil field was found in the Bohai Sea in northeast China, which will increase the reserves of 100 million tons to domestic oil supply.
China's crude oil production and imports are measured in tons.This weight measurement unit cannot be directly converted into a barrel because it depends on various factors including petroleum density and composition.The barrel is a volume unit, which is more commonly used worldwide.
It is reported that the importance to domestic production in China reflects China's concerns about energy security to a certain extent.After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, energy security has become the strategic focus of many countries.Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration of China, said in mid -April that "increasing oil and gas exploration, development and increased storage and production" is essential for China's energy safety.
China's strategic petroleum reserve is part of the move to strengthen energy security.KLI ASSET Management chief investment officer and founding partner Ricardo Leiman, a company focusing on the commodity commodity, said that when oil prices were at low during the epidemic control, China supplemented oil reserves.China has never announced oil reserves.
Hedge Fund Ocean Leonid Investments senior oil trader Yao Kaiwen (translated, Kelvin Yew) said: "As the world is increasingly differentiated, crude oil supply is extremely important."The motivation, because there is a big gap between China's own output and oil refining demand.
He also said: "It is helpful to increase domestic production, but there is a huge gap compared to demand."
The data from the China Customs Department shows that in March, China imported in China52.3 million tons of crude oil, the highest level since June 2020.Analysts expect that imports this year will meet about 70%of the total demand for petroleum oil.
Lehman said: "The growth of China's domestic oil demand will exceed its ability to increase domestic supply."
In addition, China has already been sanctioned by Russia, Iran and other countries.Reach transactions.This helps China buy oil at a level below the international market price.According to the Wall Street Journal, after the Trump administration withdrew an nuclear agreement and re -sanned Iran, China became an important source of Iranian oil income.
In December last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia as an American allies and promoted more transactions between oil manufacturers in the Gulf area and oil and refining companies.China and Saudi Arabia have also discussed the problem of the use of RMB settlement of petroleum transactions between the two countries, which challenged the long -term practice led by the US dollar by the global oil trade.
Emma Richards, the oil and gas analyst of the company BMI, said: "We see that China is increasingly embedded in the Middle East energy market.Synchronous".
The report believes that for China's export volume, Russia and Saudi Arabia have always been comparable, but the geopolitical trend has led the balance to Russia.
China and Russia have claimed that China -Russia friendship has "no upper limit", and in the case of Western sanctions Russia, the Chinese government has imported more Russian oil.
At the end of last year, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia and became China's largest petroleum trading partner.According to data from Chinese customs, Russian crude oil accounted for 18.4%of crude oil imports in China in March, and Saudi Crude oil accounted for 17%.
