Refining and marketing in the Far East

Technical Report · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:6367680

Mlotok, P

The Far East oil market, while smaller in size than that in Europe or the United States, has been the single most profitable region for the refining and marketing operations of the international oil companies. Oil consumption in the Far East runs about 10 million barrels per day (mmb/d), compared with 16 mmb/d in the United States and 12 mmb/d in Europe. Yet, because of limited competition, above-average efficiency and protective government regulation, the international oil companies have typically earned more than half of their worldwide downstream profits in the Far East. Over the next several years, however, this profitability will be challenged by two emerging trends, and future profits are not likely to equal those of the past. One of these trends is the growth of refining capacity in the OPEC nations, which will reduce their need to process crude in Singapore refineries and will also increase the volume of product exports entering the Far East. The other trend is the declining use of fuel oil, since natural gas is increasingly used to fire power plants and industry is becoming more efficient in its use of energy. This will present a challenge to the refining industry in the region, since it is not prepared to upgrade the excess fuel oil into lighter products such as gasoline and diesel oil. Among the international oil companies, Shell and Caltex are the dominant factors in the region. Mobile and Exxon have smaller, but highly profitable operations in key markets. British Petroleum (BP) is presemt in most of the former Commonwealth nations. We estimate that in 1983, the four major players earned between $200 and 400 million each, with BP taking a smaller share. The largest single market is Japan, which accounts for half of the consumption in the Far East. 4 figures.

• Research Organization: Salomon Bros., Inc., New York (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6367680
• Report Number(s): NP-5900364; ON: TI85900364
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020700* -- Petroleum-- Economics
Industrial
& Business Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
AUSTRALIA
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CONSUMPTION
FUELS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
HONG KONG
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRY
INFORMATION
ISLANDS
JAPAN
MALAYSIA
MARKET
NEW ZEALAND
NUMERICAL DATA
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PETROLEUM REFINERIES
PHILIPPINES
PROCESSING
REFINING
SINGAPORE
THAILAND