[ti:Why Is There a Decrease of Worldwide Oil-refining?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Drivers around the world are feeling pain
[00:04.40]as fuel prices greatly increase.
[00:08.72]Costs for heating buildings, power generation,
[00:13.56]and industrial production are also rising sharply.
[00:19.92]Prices were already up
[00:22.12]before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
[00:28.40]But since the middle of March, fuel costs have greatly increased
[00:33.96]while crude prices are only moderately high.
[00:39.04]A big reason for the cost increase
[00:42.16]is the lack of refining ability to process crude into gasoline
[00:48.32]and other fuel to meet high worldwide demand.
[00:54.48]Crude oil is oil as it exists in the ground.
[00:59.20]It is not yet ready to be used as fuel.
[01:04.20]Refining oil involves removing unwanted substances
[01:09.12]so that oil can be used as fuel.
[01:13.24]Information from the International Energy Agency (IEA)
[01:17.68]shows that the world can refine about 100 million barrels of oil a day.
[01:25.36]A barrel contains 159 liters of oil.
[01:31.60]But almost 20 percent of that is not useable.
[01:36.64]Much of the unusable oil comes from places
[01:40.40]where there is a lack of investment.
[01:44.28]The refining industry estimates that the world lost a total
[01:49.24]of 3.3 million barrels worth of daily refining ability
[01:55.84]since the start of 2020.
[01:59.48]About a third of these losses happened in the United States,
[02:04.24]with the rest in Russia, China, and Europe, the experts say.
[02:10.52]Fuel demand crashed early in the pandemic.
[02:14.52]Before that, oil refining ability had not fallen
[02:18.96]in any year for at least 30.
[02:23.20]However, global refining ability is set to expand
[02:27.96]by 1 million barrels per day in 2022
[02:32.56]and 1.6 million barrels per day in 2023.
[02:39.08]In April, 78 million barrels were processed each day.
[02:44.84]That is down from the pre-pandemic average
[02:47.84]of 82.1 million barrels per day.
[02:52.48]The IEA expects refining to rise during the summer
[02:57.64]to 81.9 million barrels per day,
[03:01.32]when Chinese refiners return to normal operations.
[03:07.20]The United States, China, Russia, and Europe
[03:11.76]are all operating refineries at a lower ability than before the pandemic.
[03:18.76]Nearly 30 percent of Russia's processing ability
[03:23.00]was stopped in May, sources told Reuters.
[03:27.76]Many Western nations are not accepting Russian fuel.
[03:33.44]The cost to carry products on ships overseas
[03:37.28]has risen because of high demand around the world
[03:41.48]and sanctions on Russian ships.
[03:45.24]In Europe, refineries are limited by high prices
[03:49.92]for natural gas, which powers their operations.
[03:55.12]Refiners that export a lot of fuel to other countries,
[03:59.96]such as U.S. refiners, are benefiting from the current situation.
[04:06.36]World fuel shortages have increased
[04:09.48]refining profit margins to historic highs.
[04:14.16]Companies like U.S.-based Valero
[04:17.20]and India-based Reliance Industries have seen large profits.
[04:24.44]The IEA said India, which refines more than 5 million barrels per day,
[04:31.76]has been importing cheap Russian crude for in-country use and export.
[04:39.28]I'm Caty Weaver. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM