SaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for October 26, 2023 | SaltWireSINGAPORE - China has set a minimum size for new oil refineries and will ban small crude processors that claim to be chemicals or bitumen producers under a plan to limit total capacity at 1 billion metric tons, or 20 million barrels per day, by 2025.
The think tank Sinocarbon says the refining and petrochemical sectors accounted for 8% of emissions in 2020. Together with dominant state refiner Sinopec and its rival PetroChina, as well as an army of about 60 smaller independent processors known as"teapots", the refining sector has ballooned into the world's largest, surpassing the United States last year.
Many teapots, meanwhile, have over the years quietly expanded processing capacity, invested in oil storage or moved up the product value chain to make energy transition chemicals.Apart from increasing scrutiny in approving new plants, the government can wield the powerful tool of crude oil import quotas, to which all independent refiners are subjected.