China’s crude throughput is set to reach a two-year low in April as state and independent refiners have slashed runs because of the latest COVID-19 resurgence that has hurt the country’s appetite for oil products when refineries are undergoing scheduled maintenance, data from S&P Global Commodity Insights showed. April run rates at the country’s four .
China’s reliance on Middle Eastern crudes grew sharply in the first quarter of 2022, as the country reduced inflows from Russia, Brazil and the US, data from the General Administration of Customs showed April 20. The Middle Eastern crude deliveries rose 4.8% to 5.6 million b/d in Q1, taking a 53.8% market share in the .
Chinese refineries will slash throughput in April and lift oil product exports from initial plans to compensate for falling domestic demand due to COVID-19 lockdowns. As a result, 10 refiners from the 11 polled Sinopec and PetroChina refining sources said they have cut their April throughput by 30,000-100,000 mt from their initial planned volumes or .
The average utilization rate at China’s four state-owned refiners rebounded in January to 80.7%, with nearly 1.53 million b/d capacity coming online following scheduled maintenance, while independent refiners largely retained high run rates, S&P Global Platts data showed Jan. 27. This was about three percentage points higher from the eight-month low of 78.2% in December, .
China’s crude throughput rose 4.6% year on year to 14.13 million b/d in 2021 despite refineries cutting crude runs by 2.1% in December to offset product inventory pressure, National Bureau of Statistics data released Jan. 17 showed. The higher throughput in 2021 was attributed to refining capacity expansion, and as refineries produced more oil products .