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"Improving Margins, Competitiveness & Energy Efficiency in a Volatile Oil Market"
EIA data published this month shows that global petroleum oversupply, or production versus consumption, has more than doubled to 2.6 million bpd since the end of the second quarter last year.
June 2015, Reuters
Despite the recent churning and uncertainties in oil prices and demand, refiners in Asia seem to be relatively immune to all these developments. Though many of the plans for expansion and capacity augmentation have been modified, none has been shelved off entirely.
March 2015, Downstream Today
Although a year has passed since oil price has plummeted to its record low, the EIA expects the glut to continue at least until 2017 as the driving factors behind the slide remains intact. Nonetheless, Asian refiners appear to be on a strong footing. Despite feeling the heat of the fall in crude prices and competitiveness from the Middle East, many Asian refiners in China, India & South East Asia have augmented their refining capacities in line with increasing domestic demand.
How much further will the petroleum balance pivot into Asia in the medium to long term? With opportunities and challenges, how can Asia’s refining sector strategize to be profitable and efficient?
Further downstream, the volatile feedstock price environment is forcing Asian petrochemical producers to strategize their competitiveness, where diversification and adjustments to flexible feedstock will be key.
The US shale boom is transforming the global petchem industry, with new crackers and derivatives projects moving forward in the US, with the first wave of new crackers to start up in 2017-18. Asian operators also bank on LPG from shale as an alternative to naphtha. At the same time, infrastructure and logistics developments are in progress to make way for US ethane into Asia. However, with the decline in crude oil price, how will the petchem dynamics change? Will the several PDH, CTO/MTO projects, especially in China, be competitive at current crude oil price?
CMT's Refining Outlook Asia is held in conjunction with 22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit with a plenary session focused on both Refinery & Petrochemical markets. | 
