{"id":532943,"date":"2026-06-13T06:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/532943\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:57:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:57:49","slug":"china-is-learning-to-use-less-oil-and-thats-a-bigger-deal-than-it-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/532943\/","title":{"rendered":"China Is Learning to Use Less Oil\u2014and That’s a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three months into the biggest oil supply disruption in modern history, China appears to have discovered something that should make oil bulls at least a little uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

It can get by on less fuel than anyone thought.<\/p>\n

China’s gasoline and diesel demand has been falling for years as electric vehicles gained market share and economic growth slowed. But the latest drop has surprised even seasoned observers.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters, gasoline sales at Sinopec, China’s largest refiner and fuel retailer, fell 8% year over year in April, while diesel sales dropped 6%. Goldman Sachs estimates that consumption of gasoline and related products may have fallen by as much as 20%.<\/p>\n

China has slashed crude imports since the Iran war began, with May imports plunging 29% to 7.8 million barrels per day\u2014the lowest level in eight years. Until recently, many analysts viewed those cuts primarily as a function of China’s enormous oil stockpile and high crude prices.<\/p>\n

Now another explanation is emerging: China may simply need less fuel.<\/p>\n

Rail travel rose roughly 10% in March and April. Subway ridership continues to climb. Electric taxis are becoming increasingly common. Most notably, EV charging volumes surged 69% from a year earlier to a record high in April, according to the China Charging Alliance.<\/p>\n

That shift comes as China’s refiners are already grappling with weaker economics. Sinopec cut refining runs<\/a> earlier this year as Middle Eastern supply disruptions squeezed crude availability, while Beijing has sharply reduced fuel exports to preserve domestic supplies.<\/p>\n

The property downturn isn’t helping either. Diesel demand from construction, long one of China’s most reliable sources of consumption growth, continues to weaken as projects stall and budgets tighten.<\/p>\n

The question now is whether the trend sticks.<\/p>\n

China’s refiners can only draw on inventories for so long. The country still maintains one of the world’s largest crude stockpiles, but even a billion barrels eventually run out. At some point, imports will need to recover.<\/p>\n

What remains unclear is whether gasoline demand will recover with them.<\/p>\n

For decades, China’s economic growth was one of the oil market’s most dependable bullish arguments. Today\u2019s reports may have some rethinking the strength of that argument.<\/p>\n

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com<\/p>\n

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months into the biggest oil supply disruption in modern history, China appears to have discovered something that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,381,84726,179,18,4627,19,17,16520,71699,168834],"class_list":["post-532943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-china","tag-diesel","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-gasoline","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-oil-demand","tag-refining","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116741501516082429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}