Asia will lead the pack with the highest planned and announced CDU capacity of 5.4 million bpd in 2022, followed by Africa and the Middle East with 3.2 million bpd and 2.7 million bpd, respectively. In capital expenditure (capex), Asia will again be the leader with expected capex for new build refineries of $194.9 billion, followed by Africa and the Middle East, with $126.6 billion and $87.1 billion, respectively, GlobalData has estimated.

Among individual countries, China is the leader, with ten new-build refineries expected to come on line by 2022, followed by Nigeria and Kuwait. The top ten also includes Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia, GlobalData’s report shows.

“China’s ambitious refinery capacity expansion programme continues fuelled by the country’s industrial growth, and growing demand from the transportation sector. The capacity expansion program is powering China’s crude imports, and will transform the country to become a strong contender for exports of petroleum products globally,” Sumit Kumar Chaudhuri, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said, as carried by East African Business Week.

Last month, Chinese refiners processed a record daily amount of crude oil. At a calculated 12.49 million bpd, the September run rate of Chinese refineries was more than 600,000 bpd higher than the August figure.

According to the GlobalData report, Nigeria is also planning a massive refinery expansion to meet growing domestic demand for petroleum products. The African OPEC member is expected to expand its CDU capacity by 2.003 million bpd, spending $57.6 billion. Kuwait will add 615,000 bpd of CDU capacity by 2022, and is expected to spend $7.5 billion through 2022.