Production at China’s refineries fell 4.6% in October from a year earlier, down from a year earlier for a seventh month, as plant closures offset the ramp-up of a new resort and holiday travel demand, according to official data released Friday.
Refiners processed 59.54 million tonnes of crude oil last month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), equivalent to 14.02 million barrels per day (bpd).
The October figure is down from 14.3 million bpd in September and 15.05 million bpd in October 2023.
Furthermore, Reuters calculations based on last year’s NBS figure of 63.93 million tonnes showed that October production contracted by 6.9%, suggesting that the data agency revised the previous year’s figures downward.
Throughput fell as Yulong Petrochemical, China’s newest refiner which started up one of its two 200,000 bpd crude processors in late September, increased operations at the unit to about 90% capacity.
Consumption of aviation fuel and gasoline increased last month due to more people traveling during the National Day holiday.
Some of the decline in production appears to have occurred in smaller, independent factories, known as “teapots.” Data from consultancy Sublime China Information showed that these plants, mostly located in the refining hub of Shandong province, were operating at 58.7% of capacity at the end of October, which which is significantly lower than the rate of 77% recorded the previous year.
Five Chinese refineries were entirely closed or under maintenance, according to Sublime. These include Sinochem’s factories in Zhenghe, Huaxing and Changyi which were declared bankrupt in September, a Sublime analyst said.
PetroChina’s closure of a 90,000 bpd crude unit at its plant in Dalian, in the northeast of the country, as part of a large relocation project, also contributed to the drop in throughput.
For the first 10 months of the year, NBS data showed throughput was 590.59 million tonnes, or 14.14 million bpd, down 2% year-on-year, the fifth decline in volumes since the start of the year.
Similarly, Reuters calculations based on last year’s data of 590.59 million metric tons showed a larger decline of 4.55% for the 10-month period.
Domestic crude oil production rose 2.5% last month year-on-year to 17.17 million tonnes, or 4.04 million bpd, according to NBS data.
Year-to-date production increased 2% from a year earlier to 177.64 million tonnes, or 4.25 million bpd.
Natural gas production increased 8.4% in October from a year earlier to 20.8 billion cubic meters (bcm), and year-to-date production increased by 6.7 % to reach 203.9 bcm, according to the data.
(1 metric ton = 7.3 barrels of crude oil)
