Nigeria proceeds with petrol importation from China.
In recent times, China has been the major exporter of transportation fuels to Africa, and according to the General Administration of Customs [GAC’s] data, Togo was the first to receive petrol in April 2018, at 50,000 mt, followed by Nigeria which got 51,000 mt in January 2019.
As Nigeria’s refineries remain in a worn-out state, Africa’s biggest oil producer has resumed its importation of petrol from China.
China, the world’s top crude oil importer, shipped 37,000 metric tonnes of Petrol to Nigeria in September for the first time since 2019, S and P Global Platts quoted data from the GAC.
The United States Energy Information Administration [EIA] has said that China’s annual crude oil imports rose by 0.9 million barrels per day in 2019 to an average of 10.1 million bpd.
GAC revealed that China’s most recent diesel exports to African countries were in June, with Kenya and South Africa receiving 40,000 mt and 35,000 mt, respectively.
The EIA marked the abrupt increase to China’s new refinery capacity, strategic inventory stockpiling and flat domestic oil production. China’s refinery capability went up by 1.0 million bpd in 2019, basically because two new refining and petro-chemical complexes were online with capacities of 0.4 million bpd each. This also increased the country’s refinery processing to an all-time high in 2019, on an average of 13.0 million bpd for the year, according to the EIA.
Sources in the industry noted that the unsteady demand recovery in Africa has led to a divergence in Support for Asian transportation fuel markets as diesel and jet fuel requirements languish while the quest for petrol remains strong.
The sources believed Africa’s low demand for diesel and jet fuel eradicated a significant hold of support from Asian middle distillate markets after buoying them for most of the third quarter. Market sources added that African continent gets most of its petrol and middle distillate imports from the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean which in a way, is a boost for Asia.
