Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.26
Trend:
Asia leads crude oil refinery capital expenditure (capex) with $194.9bn proposed for planned and announced projects up to 2022, with Africa and the Middle East following with a capex of $126.6bn and $87.1bn, respectively, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, ‘H2 2018 Global Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook for Refineries – Asia and Africa Continue to Dominate Global Refinery Capex and Capacity Additions’, indicates that, the global crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity is expected to register significant growth of 15.1% over the next four years, increasing from 101.7million barrels per day (mmbd) in 2018 to 117.0 mmbd by 2022.
Asia is expected to have the highest planned and announced CDU capacity of 5.4 mmbd in 2022, followed by Africa and the Middle East with 3.2 mmbd and 2.7 mmbd, respectively.
China, Nigeria, and Kuwait are the top three countries globally with the most planned and announced CDU capacity additions by 2022. China is expected to add 3,120 barrels per day (mbd) of CDU capacity, the highest among countries, through 10 new-build refineries, with an expected capex of US$67.3bn by 2022.
Sumit Kumar Chaudhuri, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “China’s ambitious refinery capacity expansion program continues fuelled by the country’s industrial growth, and growing demand from the transportation sector. The capacity expansion program is powering China’s crude imports, and will transform the country to become a strong contender for exports of petroleum products globally.”
Nigeria plans to add 2,003 mbd of CDU capacity through 29 refineries by 2022. The country is expected to spend US$57.6bn, the highest among countries, in the next four years on new-build refineries. Kuwait is expected to witness the addition of 615 mbd of CDU capacity by 2022, and capex of US$7.5bn is expected to be spent over the next four years.
Chaudhuri adds, “Nigeria is increasing its crude oil refining capacity as it aims to become a net exporter of petroleum products, instead of being a mere exporter of crude oil. The increase in refining capacity will also help the country to meet growing domestic consumption of petroleum products.”
By 2022 the global top three upcoming refineries in terms of CDU capacity, will be the Dayushan Island refinery in China with a capacity of 800 mbd, the Lagos I refinery in Nigeria with 650 mbd, and the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait with 615 mbd.