Operating income and foreign trade value of China’s petroleum and chemical industry both hit new record highs in 2022, growing 14.4% YoY and 21.7% YoY, respectively. Total profit remained at more than RMB1.1 trillion. By sectors, oil-gas, refining and chemical sectors all saw income growth of 32.9% YoY, 18.6% YoY and 10.1% YoY, respectively. Benefiting from high prices of crude oil and natural gas, profit of oil-gas sector soared 114.7% YoY, versus a drop of 87.6% YoY in refining sector and a decline of 8.1% YoY in chemical sector.

In 2022, foreign trade value of domestic petroleum and chemical industry exceeded US$1 trillion, rising 21.7% from 2021’s record of US$860 billion. Export value was up 20.6% YoY, and import value up 22.2% YoY.

Domestic output of crude oil was up 2.9% YoY to 205 million tons in 2022, and that of natural gas up 6.4% YoY to 217.79 billion cubic meters, helping the nation decrease its dependence on imported crude oil to 71.2% and that on imported natural gas to 40.2%. Domestic output of major chemicals was down 0.4% YoY, and consumption of inorganic chemicals down 1.5% YoY, both in 2022, when domestic refining capacity reached 920 million t/a and ethylene capacity reached 46.75 million t/a, both ranking first in the world.