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Asia looks for new power station fuels
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
oil and energy trends
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1744-7992
pISSN - 0950-1045
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7992.2005.300213.x
Subject(s) - diesel fuel , economic shortage , fuel oil , raw material , natural resource economics , gasoline , electricity , wood fuel , petroleum , business , agricultural economics , economics , waste management , engineering , government (linguistics) , linguistics , philosophy , electrical engineering , biology , paleontology , chemistry , organic chemistry
The rapid rise in demand for electricity in Asia is distorting fuel markets. Heavy fuel oil is widely used there as a power station feedstock, unlike in Western Europe and North America, where fuel oil is sometimes a distress product. Here, refiners tend to convert as much as their residues to white products in high demand, such as gasoline and diesel, rather than producing fuel oil. Asia's growing demand for white products ought to dictate a similar policy there, but many refiners prefer instead to keep the production of fuel oil high. The result is often that there are insufficient supplies of both. The answer to the fuel oil shortage is to import from areas of surplus such as Western Europe and the US, but record freight rates in recent months have greatly reduced the trade to Asia ( see 'Focus', January 2005 ).