October 25, 2022 [Reuters] – China’s oil refinery output in September posted its first year-on-year increase since November, with daily processing rising to its highest in nine months, data showed, as several large state-run plants returned from maintenance.
September refinery output rose by 1.9% from a year earlier to 56.81 million tonnes, or about 13.82 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the National Bureau of Statistics, versus 12.64 million bpd in August.
Throughput in the first nine months of 2022 was 497.26 million tonnes, equal to about 13.3 million bpd and down 5.1% from a year earlier.
Production recovered as state-run plants such as Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical and PetroChina’s Wepec refinery resumed operations after lengthy unplanned shutdowns.
However, operations at independent refiners in the eastern refining hub of Shandong remained subdued at around 63% of capacity in September, slipping from around 65% in August and versus about 70% in July, according to Chinese commodities consultancy JLC.
NBS data also showed China’s crude oil production last month rose 1.4% from a year earlier to 16.81 million tonnes, or 4.09 million bpd. Year-to-date production gained 3% from a year earlier to 153.75 million tonnes, or 4.11 million bpd.
Such growth is considered an achievement for the industry as national companies accelerated developing geologically more challenging terrains to offset rapid declines in mature reservoirs.
Natural gas production in September rose 4.6% from a year earlier and output during the first three quarters was up 5.4% over the corresponding period of 2021.
Healthy growth in domestic gas production has enabled Chinese firms to cut back on pricey imports of liquefied natural gas from the spot market. read more
(1 tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)
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