Biejing. China's apparent oil demand growth may accelerate this year as the world's third-biggest economy expands, China National Petroleum Corp. said.
Apparent oil demand may rise more than 5 percent to 427 million metric tons this year compared with a 3.7 percent gain in 2009, CNPC Research Institute of Economics & Technology said in a report today. Apparent demand includes domestic production and net imports and excludes inventories.
China's economy grew at the fastest pace in the fourth quarter since 2007 while vehicle sales surged 46 percent last year, spurring fuel demand in the world's second-biggest energy consumer. The Chinese economy will expand four times faster than the U.S. in 2010, the United Nations said in December.
Apparent demand for diesel may increase 7.7 percent to 149.7 million tons in 2010, compared with 0.1 percent growth in 2009, the slowest since 2000, the CNPC research unit said. Gasoline consumption may rise 7.8 percent to 72.2 million tons versus a 5.6 percent expansion last year.
China's domestic oil-product market may see a "slight" oversupply this year after the government introduced a fuel- pricing mechanism in December 2008 that guarantees a profit for refiners. Refinery utilization rates remain high, the research unit of the country's largest oil and gas producer said.
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