PetroChina Domestic Fuel Sales Drop 7.3% in First Half as China's EV Shift Accelerates
PetroChina's first-half results confirm accelerating demand attrition in China's motor fuels market, with Sinopec separately forecasting an 8.9% full-year decline.
PetroChina's domestic sales of gasoline, kerosene and diesel fell to 54.342 million tons in the first half of 2026, down 7.3% from 58.646 million tons in the same period of 2025, according to the state company's quarterly report released on Saturday (2026-09-19). Total product sales including international trading declined 5.8% to 73.298 million tons from 77.831 million tons.4
The domestic figure deteriorates faster than the aggregate, suggesting that international volumes and trading operations are partly absorbing the headline decline. The underlying shortfall is roughly 4.3 million fewer tons of liquid motor fuels leaving Chinese domestic pumps over six months, a contraction large enough to matter for regional refining margins even if global crude benchmarks have not yet registered it.4
PetroChina added 592 comprehensive energy stations during the period, each combining LNG terminal refueling with EV charging and battery swapping. The company has described this buildout as part of an accelerated transformation strategy, pushing its retail network away from pure liquid fuels toward services that directly displace conventional gasoline and diesel volumes.4
Processing units moved in the opposite direction. Ethylene output rose 20.8% to 5,402 thousand tons from 4,473 thousand tons, synthetic resin jumped 12.4% to 7,801 thousand tons, and new materials production surged 61.4% to 2,688 thousand tons — all rising while domestic fuel sales fell. Refinery yield held at 95.13%, up from 94.53% a year earlier. PetroChina is shifting its throughput mix toward petrochemicals and new materials, using higher-yielding processing to offset the revenue loss from declining fuel volumes.4
Sinopec, the world's largest refiner by capacity, put a full-year frame on the trend on September 9 (2026-09-09). The company forecast Chinese oil demand would fall 8.9% in 2026 versus 2025, attributing the contraction to both price-induced demand destruction and the structural acceleration of EV adoption. At that pace, China would exit 2026 having shed close to one-tenth of its oil demand in a single year.3
But crude prices have not tracked this demand trajectory. ICE Brent crude front-month stood at $103.37 per barrel as of September 20 (2026-09-20). On September 2 (2026-09-02), Brent had been at $94.01 per barrel in New York morning trade, itself about $7 above where it had traded the week before. Supply disruptions linked to Middle East conflict that began in late February 2026 have kept crude elevated above where Chinese demand fundamentals alone would suggest.2,1
Products markets show the same split. NYMEX RBOB Gasoline front-month sat at $3.51 per gallon and NYMEX Heating Oil front-month at $5.05 per gallon as of September 20 (2026-09-20). Contrarian positioning in both contracts tilts bullish on storage and supply factors, running against the demand destruction signal from China's two largest state refiners. U.S. commercial crude inventories were 424.5 million barrels for the week ending August 28 (2026-08-28), 1% above the five-year seasonal average after a 4.5 million barrel draw, according to EIA data published September 2 (2026-09-02).2
PetroChina and Sinopec are pointing in the same direction. Both are reporting or forecasting demand losses at a pace that, if carried through the rest of the year, would produce a material annual contraction in Chinese motor fuels consumption. The next quarterly data from either company, along with any revision to Sinopec's 8.9% full-year forecast, will test whether the first-half pace of attrition holds.4,3