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* Industry dogged by low crude prices, poor refining margins
* Global oil industry eyes China's 'teapots' for newbusiness
* Oil price agency Platts takes over as conference organiser
By Henning Gloystein and Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Conspicuous consumption,mostly liquid, has long been a feature of Singapore's annualAPPEC oil gathering, but it is a more sober affair in 2016, asexecutives in the third year of an industry downturn keep aclear head for deal opportunities.
There are still takers for the many dinner and cocktailreceptions, but with oil prices down about 60 percent sincemid-2014, and refinery margins hitting multi-year lows inAugust, delegates are putting business before partying tocompete in a volatile and cut-throat market.
"Last year, there was a large roof-top event that went allnight, and people were rolling out at 6 or 7 a.m.," said aSingapore taxi driver. "This year, the big events all finishedat midnight or 1 a.m. tops, and only the die-hards stayed outlater."
A transformation in the Chinese oil market with the adventof the "teapot" refining industry - a batch of independentrefiners with import licences - has also introduced a new sourceof demand for producers to fight over at the 32nd Asia PacificPetroleum Conference this week.
"There is a need to be very entrepreneurial, to find outyour customer," said Jorge Montepeque, Senior Vice President atENI Trading and Shipping, the trading branch of Italian energymajor ENI.
Andy Milnes, chief executive for global oil and gas firmBP's Integrated Supply & Trading in the EasternHemisphere, said at a Financial Times commodities event inSingapore that his firm had made big efforts to engage withChina.
This included packing its China team predominantly withChinese nationals, which Milnes said had made a big differencein terms of customer relations and "understanding the needs andopportunities out there".
Oil producers like BP and Statoil and traders likeTrafigura have recently entered deals with teapots,and APPEC attendants said others were lining up to follow suit.
The 16 teapots together import 1.3 million barrels of crudeper day, equivalent to more than 10 percent of overall Chineseimports.
"Business is good. We're being courted," said one teapotdelegate.
BASIC BUBBLES
In previous years, the executives, traders, brokers,exchange staff and sales and marketing teams who flocked toAPPEC showed scant enthusiasm for the conference events, whichwere sparsely attended.
"As visitors swarmed to industry celebrations, hospitalitysuites and corporate outings during APPEC week, conferenceattendance declined sharply," said John Driscoll, director ofJTD Energy Services in Singapore, who has been attending APPECsince its first year in 1985.
In a sign of leaner times, Angolan state oil producerSonangol was serving $50-a-bottle Veuve Clicquot champagne atits APPEC party this week. Before the downturn, delegates weretreated to Dom Perignon, about four times the price.
The change in atmosphere this year is also in part becauseoil price reporting agency S&P Global Platts, which competeswith Thomson Reuters to provide news and information to energymarkets, has taken over as conference organiser from localcompany Ace Connections and Events.
Along with smaller rivals like privately held Argus Media,Platts, part of the group that , provides prices for physicaloil and refined products - influencing cargoes worth billions ofdollars every day.
"Our plan is to build out the APPEC conference as thepremier thought leadership event for the Asian energy market,"said Sarah Whipp, Head of Marketing and Conferences for Platts,part of the group that also owns ratings agency Standard &Poor's.
Platts' proposals to change the way it prices gasoil, a keyrefined product, has also given the conference particularrelevance this year.
"As the purveyor of the Asia's key price methodologies forcrude and products and the custodian of the daily Market onClose (MOC) window, Platts' can command the undivided attentionof traders," said Driscoll. (Additional reporting by Gavin Maguire and Mark Tay; Editing byWilliam Waterman)
