Beijing — China’s crude oil throughput in July rose 8.9% from a year earlier, official data showed on Friday, as state-owned refineries maintained high operating rates.
The world’s second-largest oil consumer processed 63.06-million tonnes of crude in July, or about 14.85-million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The daily processing rate was down 1.95% from June, when China’s oil throughput reached the highest level since September 2023, according to Reuters calculations based on the data.
Refineries undergoing maintenance in July accounted for a total capacity of 79-million tonnes per year, down by 28.7-million tonnes from June, according to Chinese consultancy OilChem.
The refinery utilisation rate rose to 71.84% in July, up 1.02 percentage points from June and 3.56 percentage points from a year earlier, according to consultancy Oilchem.
However, the consultancy noted that both independent and state-owned refineries have seen profits decline compared with June.
In July, state-owned refineries’ average refining profit was 872 yuan ($121.4) per tonne, down 22.21% month on month as rising costs and falling product prices eroded margins.
Shandong independent refiners earned an average profit of 325 yuan ($45.3) per tonne from processing imported crude, down 8.39% month on month as crude costs fell more sharply than overall revenue, according to Oilchem.
NBS data also showed that China’s domestic crude oil production in July rose 1.2% from a year earlier to 18.12 million tonnes, or 4.27-million bpd.
Crude output for the first seven months rose 1.3% to 126.6-million tonnes, or 4.36-million bpd.
Natural gas production increased 7.4% year on year to 21.6-billion cubic metres in July, with output from January to July rising 6%, the data showed.
Reuters
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