OREANDA-NEWS.  October 30, 2014. Recent refinery upgrades in China and India have given those countries more flexibility in choosing imports and diminished demand for light crude on the global market, which has dropped a quarter of its value in the past three months.

Speaking at a crude oil summit in Singapore, Platts China oil analyst James Lu said Thursday that Chinese sour crude processing has tripled in the last decade.

Analysts from the research firm Energy Aspects said last week that changes in Indian and Chinese refining capacity have allowed those countries to meet growing gasoline demand without large volumes of West African – or WAF – light, sweet crude. Platts reported:

This “is worrying as it shows their refinery upgrades have made them far more able to be selective crude buyers,” the analysts said. “This is particularly true for the sweet WAF crude grades, with November Angolan heavy cargoes all sold out but both Angolan and Nigerian lights still unsold.”

In conjunction with the boom of light shale oil in the U.S., costly upgrades lead Gulf Coast refiners to favor heavier discounted oils that give them better margins.