China today is one of the fastest-growing oil and gas markets (see the report "The Next Upstream Boom") with a growing petrochemicals and heavy-duty transportation sector. However, in its pursuit of cleaner emissions, the country has announced several initiatives to reduce the sulfur content in transportation fuels, notably its plan for modifying a million heavy-duty diesel trucks (20% of the national fleet) to natural gas and low-sulfur diesel. Likewise, in 2018, China also implemented the China V diesel fuel quality standard that limits diesel content to a maximum of 10 ppm for all motor vehicles nationwide. The dynamic regulatory landscape for diesel has compelled oil refiners to invest in expensive deep hydrogenation and desulfurization technologies to meet requirements.
