Asian Refiners Ex-japan To Outperform Global Peers

Asian oil-and-gas refiners (excluding Japan) will fare much better than their global peers despite a challenging operating environment, says Moody's Investors Service. "The outperformance of Asian refiners will be led by their higher proportion of middle-distillate output and China's above-average demand for refined products," Moody's vice president and senior analyst Simon Wong said in Moody's first bi-annual outlook report on the Asian oil-and-gas refining and marketing sector. Wong said China's oil demand growth in 2012 will account for 40 per cent of incremental growth in global oil demand. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forecasts a 4.4 per cent year-on-year growth for China versus 0.7 per cent for the rest of the world. Wong said Asia's refineries have a high proportion of middle-distillate output with Korea at 43 per cent, Thailand 46 per cent and Petrochina 70 per cent, which will underpin their above-average refining margins.