MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's oil refineries ramped up throughput in June to the second highest on record, with some independent plants raising output even as state oil majors prepare to take drastic steps to cut production during the peak summer season, reported Reuters.
Throughput last month reached 46.08 MMt, or 11.21 MMbpd, a 2.3% rise year-on-year and up from May's 10.98 MMbpd, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
That was just shy of December's record volume of 11.26 MMbpd.
The higher throughput came after another month of strong crude oil imports and as top refineries prepared to cut output in the third quarter.
"Refinery runs were impressive considering that refinery maintenance was still heavy," said Nevyn Nah, analyst at Energy Aspects.
Independent refiners, known as "teapots" raised their runs after receiving additional crude import quotas, while oil majors kept their throughput roughly flat year on-year, he said.
For the first six months, refinery production in the world's second-largest fuel consumer gained 3% from a year earlier to 275.21 MMt, or about 11.1 MMbpd.
Upcoming cuts to production by the oil majors will not be as deep as many in the market expect, added Nah, because the planned cuts were from very high levels in the first quarter.
The NBS data on Monday also showed domestic crude oil output fell 2.3% last month versus a year ago to 16.21 MMt, or 3.94 MMbpd, but up from May's 3.83 MMbpd.
Output during the January-June period was down 5.1% on-year at about 3.89 MMbpd.
We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, China's Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels. Sinopec's upgrades come as China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, is embracing more stringent fuel standards in its battle against pollution and suffering an overall glut in refining capacity. After the upgrades, the total refining capacity of the four refining sites will reach 130 MMtpy, or 2.6 MMbpd, while ethylene capacity will reach 9 MMtpy, Sinopec said. The sites are in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Zhenhai on the east coast and Maoming-Zhanjiang in southern Guangdong province. After the expansions, the bases will make up 45% of Sinopec's total refining capacity and 65% of its ethylene capacity.
MRC