Australian refinery closures a boost to Asian MR trade

摘要

Australian oil product imports have risen significantly this year, due not only to increasing domestic oil consumption that has been led by the country's mineral resources boom, but in large part to the closure of ageing refinery capacity. Shell's 80K b/d Clyde refinery ceased operating in September 2012. In the first 8 months of this year, Australia's combined imports of diesel, gasoline and jet averaged 356K b/d, an increase of 68K b/d y-o-y, according to data from Australia's Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics. This is predominantly an MR trade and equates to an extra 60 MR cargoes this year, or an additional 7-8 cargoes a month. Diesel accounts for the largest segment of imports (averaging 223K b/d Jan-Aug) followed by jet (67K b/d) and gasoline (66K b/d).