Asia is Where Major Increases in Refinery Utilization is Occurring
•Asian utilization increased, but “Asia” varies immensely
•China and India are big demand drivers and  are adding capacity (soon enough?)
•Singapore export center utilization increased
SThe largest changes in refinery utilization regionally seem to be in Asia, but Asia is not one homogeneous market.

SThe Asian oil product market can be broken into four types of countries:

(1) OECD countries; Japan has declining demand and refinery closures; Korea has low demand growth.

(2) High growth countries such as China and India, which have historically developed domestic refining to serve their needs and raised protective tariffs.
– China, where growth has been most dramatic in 2004, has reported crude runs of over 6 MMB/D in recent months.
– At the same time, the latest source available to us reported a Chinese refining capacity of only 5.2 to 5.4 MMB/D, which means reported capacity is likely to be lower than actual.

(3)  Rest of Asia/Pacific with modest demand growth.

(4) The major export refinery center of Singapore.

SAsia has also been a net product importer and a major market for the export refineries in the Middle East.