China and India are going to be the growth engines of the global refining industry as they are set to add the most refining capacity of all countries over the period 2018-2022, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

The company’s report ‘Global Refining Industry Outlook to 2022’ forecasts global refining capacity to grow by 16.8% from 105.8 million barrels per day (mmbd) in 2018 123.6 mmbd in 2022, with new build refinery projects contributing around 15.9 mmbd.

Among regions, Asia has the most planned refinery capital expenditure (capex) up to 2022. Companies in 14 Asian countries will spend an aggregate amount of $261bn on new build refineries over the period 2018-2022.

Particularly, refining operators in China and India are set to spend an estimated $54.6bn and $78.5bn respectively by 2022 and their refining capacities will increase by 3.4 mmbd and 3.1 mmbd respectively by 2022, should all projects be realized.