JLC 12th Singapore Oil Seminar

Speakers

Victor Yang
Senior Analyst
JLC International
Russell Robertson
Chief Commercial Officer
GME
Yu Xie
Chief Editor
JLC International

Background

China Oil Market to See Faster
Restructuring amid Energy Transition

The Chinese oil market is faced with faster restructuring as the country pushes for energy transition towards low-carbon and green development. To upgrade its oil industry and achieve its carbon peak and neutrality targets, China has set a limit to its oil refining capacity while encouraging the operation of new oil-to-chemical complexes. At the same time, it has set targets for increasing shares for new energy. These measures, alongside slowing economic growth, are posing great challenges to the country’s conventional oil industry.

Meanwhile, China is also emphasizing its energy security during the energy transition, and its oil demand is yet to peak.

Despite the energy security concern, Chinese refiners may sometimes come under pressure to boost their oil product exports if domestic demand lags behind production.

The Futurization of Middle East Crude

The growth of spot crudes to the Asia market has had major implications for benchmark pricing in Asia.

Dubai has been the historical Asia crude benchmark, however, in today’s market, there are three key pillars of East of Suez derivative with DME Oman Crude Oil Futures a key benchmark for transparent medium sour pricing for Asia.

The DME Oman Crude Oil price is utilized by Oman and Dubai National Oil Companies to price their crude exports to Asia, whereas Saudi Aramco, Bahrain Petroleum Company and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation utilize it as a 50% formula with Platts Dubai.

DME Oman now represents 36% of the Middle Eastern crude oil heading to the Asian market or 5.5 million barrels a day.

This futurization of Middle East pricing has grown considerable in volume during the last couple of years and growth levels have outperformed other key benchmarks such and Brent and WTI, highlighting the move away from traditional hedges to the more sophisticated and specific grade hedges that are required by modern refiners and physical players. This has developed opportunities for the investment community to take advantage of these more stabilized price correlations for arbitrage opportunities.

China’s Naphtha Market
in Industry Transformation

China is seeing growing production of light hydrocarbons including naphtha as its oil refining capacity grows. But on the other hand, as newly-built refineries are oil-to-chemical complexes and more refineries shift from fuel-oriented to refining-chemical integrated, more naphtha will be kept for captive use. With this change taking place, and the anticipation that the country will see slower growth in the demand for oil products, more attention will be focused on the change of naphtha consumption by the chemical and oil sectors. What other changes will we see? How does the market weigh naphtha against its alternatives?

China’s Biofuel Market in
International Policy Headwinds

In the efforts to reduce carbon emission and build a greener society, China is attaching mounting attention to greener fuels such as biofuel. With policy framework and industry guidelines in place, the Chinese market now sees great potential and vast opportunities in SAF and bio-bunker. In the global setting, however, challenges are observed in feedstocks and trading. How will China’s biofuel market respond to the challenges, and where is the market headed?

The Seminar is for

Oil traders, investors,
market intelligence managers

Investment banks, risk managers
and finance managers/advisors

Crude oil practitioners who
want to know more
about China’s oil Market

Key Benefits of Attending

Network with peers
in the industry
Stay updated with the latest policy
and dynamics in China’s oil market
Deepen your understanding of
government policy

Seminar Agenda

9:30 am: Registration (Please bring along your business card)

9:50 am: Opening Remarks

China Oil and Refining Session

10:00 am

China Oil Market to See Faster Restructuring amid Energy Transition

• Development of China’s oil market amid strengthening policy guidance

• Outlook for China’s oil demand and supply

• Opportunities and challenges regarding independents’ feedstock purchase

• New challenges posed to China’s oil product market as energy transition speeds up

Speaker: Victor Yang, Senior Analyst, JLC International

10:25 am: Questions and Answers

Middle East Crude Session

10:30 am

The Futurization of Middle East Crude

• History and relevance of Middle East Crude Derivatives Pricing

• Middle East Derivatives growth outperforms traditional global benchmarks

• Liquidity grows as pricing represent more specific grade related fundamentals

• The growth of the East to West Crude Oil Derivatives portfolio and further arbitrage opportunities ahead

Speaker: Russell Robertson, Chief Commercial Officer, GME

10:55 am: Questions and Answers

11:00am: Coffee break and networking

China Naphtha and Biofuel Session

11:20 am

China’s Naphtha Market in Industry Transformation

• China sees increasing output of naphtha as its refining capacity grows;

• China’s naphtha consumption by sector;

• Prospects for naphtha supply-demand pattern in 2025-2030

China’s Biofuel Market in International Policy Headwinds

• China’s policy on biofuel toward carbon emission reduction

• Market development of major biofuels in China

• Challenges faced by biofuel industry in China

• Prospects for biofuel industry chain in China

Speaker: Yu Xie, Chief Editor, JLC International

11:45 am: Questions and Answers

Register Here

About JLC

At JLC, our purpose is simple—We empower market participants.

With twenty years of endeavor in China’s bulk commodity market, we are proud to offer our premium services in data intelligence, real-time business information, industry analysis, custom reports, market research and consultation, conference & training, pricing solutions and risk management to 1.38 million customers worldwide.

Headquartered in Beijing with branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shandong’s Zibo and Yantai, and Singapore, JLC has a professional team of hundreds of insightful analysts and research fellows providing data and intelligent application services with the help of technologies including big data and artificial intelligence. Our strong database comprising global spot commodity prices, derivative prices, data on market fundamentals, industry data and macroeconomic data covers hundreds of products in over a dozen industries such as oil, natural gas, chemicals, hydrogen, steel, plastic, rubber, polyurethane, chemical fertilizers, chemical fiber and coating materials.

Apart from companies in the above-mentioned industries, we also have long-standing customers ranging from financial institutions and government associations to research institutes. With our services, they have strengthened the ability in market analysis, prediction, business decision-making and risk control, all enabling them to trade with higher efficiency and profitability.

As a leader in comprehensive, digitalized and intelligent service in China’s bulk commodity market, JLC has been an established partner of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for the latter’s price monitoring, and has been listed among Beijing’s first batch of pilot companies for innovative application of big data. We also collaborate closely with S&P Global Commodity Insights, Refinitiv, Bloomberg, and the Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX).

Inspired by the core values, our team takes the initiative, stands the tests, breaks new ground and strives for excellence. Dedicated to making commodity trading more efficient, JLC is committed to establishing itself as a world-class provider of comprehensive, digitalized and intelligent service in the industry.

About GME

The Premier International Commodity Exchange in the Middle East DME (Dubai Mercantile Exchange) has a distinguished history of providing robust and reliable commodity trading solutions. Established in 2007, DME was founded with the vision of creating a premier commodities marketplace in the Middle East.

Launched in June 2007 as a joint venture between Dubai Holding, Oman Investment Authority, and CME Group, DME aimed to bring fair and transparent price discovery and efficient risk management to the East of Suez. The Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) became its flagship contract, providing the most transparent crude oil benchmark for the region. DME Oman serves as the exclusive benchmark for Oman and Dubai crude oil Official Selling Prices (OSPs), historically crucial markers for Middle Eastern crude oil exports to Asia.

In addition to Oman (2007) and Dubai (2009), Saudi Aramco (2018), Bahrain Petroleum Company (2018), and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (2020) have committed to using DME Oman in their pricing formulas.

In 2024, Saudi Tadawul Group (STG) acquired a strategic stake in DME, to create GME (Gulf Mercantile Exchange) (from 2 September 2024). This strategic move leverages world-class capabilities and expertise, propelling the exchange’s growth as a regional commodities leader poised to meet global commodities demand.

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