China August Refinery Output Near 2-Year Lows On Outages
China’s refinery crude throughput remained near two-year lows in August due to outages at several state refiners and independent plants which curbed production amid thinning margins and tepid demand.
Refiners processed 53.66 million tonnes of crude oil last month, 6.5% less than a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.
That is equivalent to 12.64 million barrels per day (bpd), which was a touch higher than 12.53 million bpd in July but still among the lowest processing levels since early 2020.
Related Posts
Throughput in the first eight months was 434.89 million tonnes, down 6.3% on a year before and equal to about 13.06 million bpd.
China’s fuel demand has been hit hard this year as Beijing’s tough COVID-19 control measures stifled mobility and economic activity, with analysts predicting the first annual contraction in oil demand in two decades.
Affecting August output, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Corp’s 320,000-bpd crude facility only resumed partial operation in mid way through the month after more than seven weeks’ of unplanned shutdown.
