全球炼油能力为何会下降？

Drivers around the world are feeling pain as fuel prices greatly increase. Costs for heating buildings, power generation, and industrial production are also rising sharply.
随着燃油价格大幅上涨，世界各地的司机都感到痛苦。建筑供暖、发电和工业生产的成本也在急剧上升。

Prices were already up before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. But since the middle of March, fuel costs have greatly increased while crude prices are only moderately high.
在俄罗斯2月24日入侵乌克兰之前，价格已经上涨。但是自从3月中旬以来，燃油成本大幅上涨，而原油价格仅处于中等偏高水平。

A big reason for the cost increase is the lack of refining ability to process crude into gasoline and other fuel to meet high worldwide demand.
成本增加的一个重要原因是缺乏将原油加工成汽油和其它燃料以满足全球高需求的炼油能力。

Crude oil is oil as it exists in the ground. It is not yet ready to be used as fuel. Refining oil involves removing unwanted substances so that oil can be used as fuel.
原油是储存于地下的石油。它还不能用作燃料。炼油包括去除不需要的杂质，以便石油可以用作燃料。

Production per day
日产量

Information from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that the world can refine about 100 million barrels of oil a day. A barrel contains 159 liters of oil.
来自国际能源署的信息显示，全球每天可以提炼约1亿桶石油。一桶油含有159升油。

But almost 20 percent of that is not useable. Much of the unusable oil comes from places where there is a lack of investment.
但是其中约20%是不可用的。许多无法使用的石油来自缺乏投资的地方。

Refineries
炼油厂

The refining industry estimates that the world lost a total of 3.3 million barrels worth of daily refining ability since the start of 2020.
炼油行业估计，自2020年初以来，全球每天共损失330万桶炼油能力。

About a third of these losses happened in the United States, with the rest in Russia, China, and Europe, the experts say. Fuel demand crashed early in the pandemic. Before that, oil refining ability had not fallen in any year for at least 30.
专家表示，这其中大约1/3发生在美国，其余部分发生在俄罗斯、中国和欧洲。燃料需求在大流行初期暴跌。在此之前，炼油能力至少有30年没有下降。

However, global refining ability is set to expand by 1 million barrels per day in 2022 and 1.6 million barrels per day in 2023.
然而，全球炼油能力将在2022年每天增加100万桶，到2023年每天增加160万桶。

In April, 78 million barrels were processed each day. That is down from the pre-pandemic average of 82.1 million barrels per day.
今年4月每天炼制了7800万桶石油。这低于大流行前每天8210万桶的平均水平。

The IEA expects refining to rise during the summer to 81.9 million barrels per day, when Chinese refiners return to normal operations.
国际能源署预计今年夏天炼油量将增加至每天8190万桶，届时中国炼油厂将恢复正常运营。

The United States, China, Russia, and Europe are all operating refineries at a lower ability than before the pandemic. Nearly 30 percent of Russia's processing ability was stopped in May, sources told Reuters. Many Western nations are not accepting Russian fuel.
美国、中国、俄罗斯和欧洲的炼油厂运营能力都低于疫情前。消息人士对路透社表示，俄罗斯近30%的炼油能力在5月份停顿。许多西方国家不接受俄罗斯燃料。

Other reasons for high prices
高价的其它原因

The cost to carry products on ships overseas has risen because of high demand around the world and sanctions on Russian ships. In Europe, refineries are limited by high prices for natural gas, which powers their operations.
由于世界各地的高需求和对俄罗斯船只的制裁，将产品用船舶运到海外的成本已经上涨。在欧洲，炼油厂受到了天然气价格高昂的限制，天然气为他们的运营提供动力。

Who benefits
谁受益

Refiners that export a lot of fuel to other countries, such as U.S. refiners, are benefiting from the current situation. World fuel shortages have increased refining profit margins to historic highs. Companies like U.S.-based Valero and India-based Reliance Industries have seen large profits.
向其它国家出口大量燃料的炼油厂，如美国炼油厂，正在从当前形势中受益。世界燃料短缺将炼油利润提高到历史高位。总部位于美国的Valero和总部位于印度的Reliance Industries 等公司都已经获得了巨额利润。

The IEA said India, which refines more than 5 million barrels per day, has been importing cheap Russian crude for in-country use and export.
国际能源署表示，每天提炼超过500万桶石油的印度一直在进口廉价的俄罗斯原油供应国内并出口。

I'm Caty Weaver.
我是凯蒂·韦弗。