The recently released Baker Institute China Oil Map, developed by Elsie Hung, research associate, Center for Energy Studies, and Gabriel Collins, Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs, provides an online, interactive, and comprehensive view of China’s key oil infrastructure.
Described as a beta version, it is available free of charge to the public.
“Although China is now the world’s second-largest oil consumer, comprehensive and publicly available maps of its oil-related infrastructure remain scarce. However, we have not yet located an integrated, single-point map that ties the infrastructure networks together …”, wrote Hung and Collins, adding, … we are releasing the Baker Institute China Oil Map in the hope that an open, comprehensive, and regularly updated source of vital China oil-infrastructure data can help facilitate improved analysis by a broader range of participants.”
It is designed to be a “living map” because China’s oil sector and associated physical footprint are continually evolving. As additional facilities are learned of and identified, the map will be revised and updated.
The researchers highlight the challenges of the country’s geographic expanse—roughly the same area as the US Lower 48—and the lack of transparency on the part of China’s government.
Four categories of infrastructure included in the current map are: crude oil pipelines, refined product pipelines, oil refineries, crude oil and products storage facilities, and oil ports.
As of March, the map had the following total coverage by infrastructure type:
- Crude oil pipelines. 98 pipelines with a total length of 25430 km and total throughput capacity of 23 million B/D
- Refined product pipelines. 87 pipelines with a total network length of 27945 km and a total throughput capacity of 7.7 million B/D
- Oil refineries. 208 facilities with 22.3 million B/D of processing capacity
- Oil storage facilities. 287 facilities with approximately 1.06 billion bbl of total storage capacity (crude oil: 74 facilities with 706.1 million bbl of capacity; refined products: 213 facilities with 357 million bbl)
- Oil ports. 59 docking facilities for oil tankers with a total throughput
