May 18, 2026 [Reuters]- China’s April crude oil throughput fell to the lowest since August 2022, official data showed on Monday, as the Iran war curbed refinery runs in the world’s second-largest oil consumer.
Refinery throughput fell 5.8% from a year earlier to 54.65 million metric tons, or about 13.3 million barrels per day, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
Throughput in the first four months dropped 0.5% from a year earlier to 238.95 million metric tons, or 14.54 million bpd, according to the data.
Chinese refiners’ average crude processing utilisation rate slipped to 63.59% in April, down 4.7 percentage points from a year earlier, and was down 5.13 percentage points from March, according to Chinese consultancy Oilchem.
The run cuts were due to negative oil-processing margins, and Chinese independent refineries are expected to deepen the cuts in May despite Beijing urging small refiners to maintain fuel production.
Chinese refiners suffered losses of 649 yuan for each ton of crude processed in April versus a profit of 269 yuan a year earlier, Chinese consultancy SCI said in a note.
Some of the smaller refiners had to shut their plants for maintenance in May.
Although refinery operating rates in China declined, refiners raised gasoline and diesel yields. Combined with demand destruction from higher oil prices, this pushed gasoline and diesel inventories higher, Oilchem said in the report.
“China barely drew on crude inventories in April, as fuel output only needed to meet domestic demand amid export restrictions from mid-March,” said Emma Li, analyst at ship-tracking firm Vortexa.
China’s April oil imports dropped 20% year-on-year to 38.47 million tons, or 9.36 million barrels per day, hitting the lowest level in almost four years, a steeper decline than the drop in oil throughput.
China’s onshore inventory level also increased by 17 million barrels, according to Vortexa.
The data also showed April domestic crude production at 17.94 million tons, or 4.37 million bpd, up 1.2% year-on-year.
China’s oil production in the first four months was 72.74 million tons, or 4.43 million bpd, down 0.5% compared with a year earlier.
Natural gas output rose 1.9% in April to 21.9 billion cubic metres, and output in the first four months totalled 90 bcm, up 2.7% year-on-year.
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