Analysis of Current Situation of Oil Distribution and Pricing Mechanisms in Asia

The demand for oil products in Asia, particularly in China and India, is now growing strongly. The demand is estimated to rise to 29.9 million b/d by 2015, demonstrating growth of 15% (approximately 3.9 million b/d) compared to 26 million b/d in 2009. As for supply, until 2008, Asian countries had strived to upgrade their refining capacities only proportionate to demand. Contrary to this, large-scale projects to upgrade facilities undertaken by China and India in 2009 pushed up the refining capacity to 28 million b/d, outpacing demand by 2 million b/d. China and India have plans to upgrade their refining capacities by 3.3 million b/d and 1.2 million b/d by 2015, respectively, which means that supply will surpass demand (29.9 million b/d) by 3 million b/d by 2015. These facts reveal the issue of overcapacity of refining facilities. It is important for the Japanese oil refining sector to curtail such overcapacity so as to achieve an optimal supply-demand balance, to promote trading of products with an emphasis on Japan's advantages, and thereby to reinforce its international competitiveness. Major Asian countries can be divided into two categories in accordance with their oil pricing mechanisms : i.e. countries where oil price is determined based on the free market mechanism, such as Japan, South Korea, etc; and countries where the oil pricing mechanism is regulated by the government, such as China, Taiwan, India, etc. It is important to keep a close watch on the countries with a regulated pricing mechanism, as the recent trend shows that these countries will take steps for deregulation in the future. Oil pricing is closely connected to demand. The climate of demand is the key factor for determining a profitable price. The Japanese oil sectors will need to strive to eliminate the factors which would be obstacles to fair pricing, by means of addressing the overcapacity so as to achieve an optimal supply-demand balance and coming up with effective frameworks to ensure a sound market. In addition, in order for the Japanese oil sectors to sustain their supply chains while maintaining an optimal supply-demand balance, they would need to move ahead to take restructuring steps including a new pricing mechanism so as to attain both "adequate refining margin" and "shortening time lags."oil demand, Asia, oil refining sector

YOKOHAMA : Yokohama Smart City Project. Projet SMARTMOB

Ce document fait partie d’un ensemble de cinq monographies portant sur les smart communities deKeihanna, Kitakyushu, Toyota, Yokohama au Japon et Lyon Confluence en France. Il vient en complément du rapport « Des éco-quartiers aux « smart cities » : quel rôle pour l’électro-mobilité ? Une comparaison France – Japon », réalisé dans le cadre du projet SMARTMOB par le LAET et l’IAO, en réponse à l’appel d’offre du GO6 du PREDIT IV (financement ADEME).Ce rapport pointe les particularités de la smart community de Yokohama. Il fait partie d’un corpus qui complètent le rapport final intitulé « Des éco-quartiers aux « smart cities » : quel rôle pour l’électro-mobilité ? Une comparaison France – Japon », réalisé dans le cadre du projet SMARTMOB par le LAET et l’IAO, en réponse à l’appel d’offre du GO6 du PREDIT IV (financement ADEME). Ce dernier est déposé sur les archives ouvertes : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01382640)

KITAKYUSHU : Kitakyushu Smart Community Creation Project. Projet SMARTMOB

Ce document fait partie d’un ensemble de cinq monographies portant sur les smart communities deKeihanna, Kitakyushu, Toyota, Yokohama au Japon et Lyon Confluence en France. Il vient en complément du rapport « Des éco-quartiers aux « smart cities » : quel rôle pour l’électro-mobilité ? Une comparaison France – Japon », réalisé dans le cadre du projet SMARTMOB par le LAET et l’IAO, en réponse à l’appel d’offre du GO6 du PREDIT IV (financement ADEME).Ce rapport pointe les particularités de la smart community de Kitakyūshū. Il fait partie d’un corpus qui complètent le rapport final intitulé « Des éco-quartiers aux « smart cities » : quel rôle pour l’électro-mobilité ? Une comparaison France – Japon », réalisé dans le cadre du projet SMARTMOB par le LAET et l’IAO, en réponse à l’appel d’offre du GO6 du PREDIT IV (financement ADEME). Ce dernier est déposé sur les archives ouvertes : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01382640)

A Maritime Oil Blockade Against China—Tactically Tempting but Strategically Flawed

The political, economic, and financial aspects of sustaining an oil blockade against China mean that even a militarily successful blockader could find its political, economic, and diplomatic position untenable well before a blockade could exert its full effects

PV System With Reconnection to Improve Output Under Nonuniform Illumination

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are often nonuniformly illuminated owing to shadows of neighboring buildings, trees, clouds, etc. In order to reduce the effect of shadows on solar panels, we propose the concept of a PV system with reconnection; this system consists of PV arrays that can be reconnected to minimize the mismatch loss, depending on the output of each of its module, measured at regular time intervals. In this study, the relationship between the output improvement with reconnection and the switching interval is shown. For a 3-kW PV system, under conditions of cloudlessness and cloudiness, a sharp difference in the output improvement relative to the switching interval is not observed. However, under the condition of shading, the output improvement sharply decreases relative to the switching interval; the output improvement at a 1-min switching interval is 0.15 kWh·h (+22.4%). For the 90-kW building-integrated photovoltaic system, during the summer solstice, a sharp difference in the output improvement relative to the switching interval is not observed. However, during the vernal equinox and winter solstice, when a large area of the PV system is shaded for a long period of time, the output improvement sharply decreases relative to the switching interval. The output improvement at a 1-min switching interval is 6.5 kWh·d (+2.9%) during the vernal equinox and 2.3 kWh·d (+3.7%) during winter solstice

Japan's policy towards the South China Sea - applying "proactive peace diplomacy"?

"China's reinforcements of its claims to most of the South China Sea (SCS) cause significant tensions in the region. As one of the top trading nations in Southeast Asia and as a security alliance partner of the US, Japan has become involved in the conflict. This report takes a closer look at Japan's various interests in the SCS region and its multilateral and bilateral policies to pursue these interests. The author considers whether Japan's proclaimed 'proactive peace diplomacy' may contribute to a reduction of tensions or whether it will exacerbate the situation as the Chinese government is asserting." (author's abstract

Development of Polyol Ester Refrigeration Oils for HFO Refrigerants

Recently, R32 refrigerant, which has low global warming potential (GWP), attracts much attention as an alternative one instead of R410A and has started to be used in practical system of room air conditioner (RAC), but compared with natural refrigerants, its GWP of 675 is still high and it is required to use refrigerants with much lower GWP. In addition, although R134a (GWP=1300) is widely used for mobile air conditioner systems (MAC), it has been decided by MAC directive in Europe that refrigerants whose GWP is over 150 can no longer be available in future. In such a situation, HFO refrigerants like R1234yf, R1234ze and AMOLEA [1] are considered as candidates for next-generation refrigerants because of their much lower GWP. Therefore, at the same time, it is required to develop refrigeration oils which have good compatibility with HFO refrigerants for RAC. One of the characteristics of HFO refrigerants is that their miscibility with refrigeration oils is equal to or greater than that of HFCs. However, the problem is that HFOs have a double bond in their molecular structure, resulting in their lower chemical stability than that of HFCs. We developed polyol ester (POE) refrigeration oil with high chemical stability under HFO atmospheres by improving formulation of additives. In this study, we will report the method and the characteristics of lubricity under HFOs. [1] M. Fukushima, M. Hashimoto, Development of Low-GWP Alternative Refrigerants , JRAIA the International Symposium on New Refrigerants and Environmental Technology 2014, (2014), 292-299

Development of refrigeration oil for use with R32

R32 has been applied as an air-conditioner refrigerant in Japan for a few years. Although its GWP is slightly higher than the limit of F-gas restriction, high COP is a key driving force for R32 system. Regarding refrigeration oil applied to R32, there are two main issues. First issue is miscibility with R32, because incumbent refrigeration oil for R410A is rather immiscible to R32. Second issue is lubricity. When refrigerant is miscible well with refrigeration oil, generally, dissolved refrigerant reduce viscosity of refrigerant-oil mixture. Lower viscosity results in, lower lubricity, and finally, it would cause wear of sliding parts, compressor durability shortage, insufficient sealing, or reduced COP. At the earlier stage, several refrigeration oils miscible with R32 have been proposed. However, we have experienced wearing problems on surface of a main shaft in R32 system with such refrigeration oils, for example. Those problems were not found in R410A systems. We assumed there is some different mechanism on sliding parts in R32 systems comparing with current refrigerant systems. We focused on viscosity of refrigerant – oil mixture, which could be correlated to lubricity. Then, we found that viscosity of R32 – refrigeration oil mixture is extremely lower than that of R410A – refrigeration oil. Together with results of wearing problem in sliding parts, which are not worn by fluid lubrication in general, we assumed that oil film is formed insufficiently on the surface due to the extreme low viscosity of the mixture. Our goal of development of refrigeration oil for R32 was reset to balance miscibility and lubricity, which is trade-off normally. Through various studies, finally, we found a new base oil to meet our goal, which makes us possible to achieve not only high viscosity of the mixture, but also good miscibility with R32. Its excellent characteristics on lubricity and miscibility are also confirmed by several compressor tests