At the recently held “Analysis Conference on the Economic Operation of the National Petroleum and Chemical Industryâ€, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (hereinafter referred to as “the Federationâ€) disclosed a set of import and export data for the petrochemical industry in the first half of the year, including crude oil and finished products. The phenomenon that oil has the largest import value and the fastest growth rate of export value has caused concern in the industry. According to industry insiders, one of the major incentives for the export of refined oil products is likely to be the seizure of methanol or methanol gasoline.
According to the Deputy Director of the Federation's Information and Marketing Department Zhu Wei, in the first half of this year, China’s import and export trade continued to grow rapidly. In the first half of the year, the total import and export trade volume of the petroleum and chemical industry was US$219.958 billion, a record high for the same period and an increase of 61.4% year-on-year. Among them, the largest import amount was crude oil, with import value of 66.75 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of the year, an increase of 114% year-on-year; the fastest-growing export value was refined oil with a growth rate of 101.7%.
“This is quite unusual: On the one hand, we continue to increase imports of crude oil, while on the other hand, we export a large amount of refined oil. Among these, a considerable portion of the exported oil is squeezed by methanol.†Feng Shiliang, a senior analyst at the Federation, told the newspaper. The reporter said.
He pointed out that, compared with ordinary gasoline, the cost of methanol is only 2,000 yuan, while the regular gasoline prices are rising due to the lower domestic oil price than the international, which led to more competitive methanol or methanol gasoline can squeeze the share of ordinary gasoline.
“In Shanxi, for example, the methanol ex-factory price, consumption tax, additives, and deployment cost are 5,700 yuan, and the price of the reconciled methanol gasoline (M15) is more than 7,000 yuan, compared to the retail price of gasoline 90, which is 8,200 yuan, and 1,200 yuan. “The difference.†Zhong Jian, chief economist of the Oriental Oil and Gas Network, told this reporter that this means that there is another price reduction of 0.9 yuan per liter in gasoline of the same quality, and this spread is the most favorable for opening the market. arms.
He believes that if the domestic price level of refined oil products tends to increase in the future and the price increase is faster than methanol, the economy of methanol gasoline will be further highlighted.
However, in the case that the low percentage of national standard has not been released, the private addition of methanol or methanol gasoline has also disrupted the market to some extent.
“In fact, in many places in China, the addition of methanol to petrol by privately-owned gas stations is a hidden rule in the industry. According to estimates by the deputy secretary-general of the National Alcohol Ether Fuel Standardization Technical Committee, even Lian Lianqi estimated that in 2009 there were nearly 5 million tons of methanol. Illegally and secretly entered the domestic refined oil market.
He pointed out that the lawless elements will directly add methanol without any treatment to gasoline. On the one hand, it will lead to corrosion, swelling, damage to the engine parts of the automobile, shorten the engine life and even cause safety accidents; on the other hand, the illegal blending of methanol gasoline It is sold at the price of pure petrol, and its calorific value is significantly lower than that of pure petrol, which will also seriously damage consumer rights.
The reporter noted that in the first half of the year domestic methanol production was 8.11 million tons, an increase of 53.3% year-on-year, and it was one of the fastest growing basic chemical raw materials.