Sinopec chairman forecasts China diesel demand will peak in 2017

Chairman Fu Chengyu of the state-controlled China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, told participants in a March conference call that China’s peak demand for diesel will arrive in 2017 and that peak gasoline demand will arrive within a decade, Bloomberg reported. The forecast runs counter to those from oil drillers in the US and Europe that expect demand to increase for decades in China. It also contradicts projections from the International Energy Agency, which expects China’s oil demand to likely increase at least through 2040.