China's teapots are filling up
Chinese authorities are giving independent refiners greater freedom to source their own supplies of crude oil
Until recently, China's Hengli Petrochemical was a little-known manufacturer of chemical fibres. But in May, the group, based in the Port of Dalian in northern China, leapt into prominence when the commerce ministry gave it approval to import 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil, the biggest-ever quota for a privately-owned "teapot" refinery. Overnight, the decision made Hengli an important buyer of Saudi Arabian crude oil. The first shipment, reportedly 2m spot barrels of medium crude, was being loaded in June and fed into Hengli's new refinery for trial runs. Clearly, the quota is directly connected to the refinery, which has a capacity of 400,000 b/d and is designed to process Saudi medium
Also in this section
3 July 2025
The July/August 2025 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
2 July 2025
The global energy community will converge in Dubai on 10 December for a landmark event dedicated to shaping the future of natural gas across the region
30 June 2025
Government is sending out the right policy signals to support increased domestic gas development, but policy takes time to implement and even longer to yield results
27 June 2025
Gas-on-gas competition pricing has grown its share of consumption significantly over the past two decades, primarily at the expense of oil-price-escalation pricing, according to the IGU
