Business | Oil & Gas
China's refinery runs soar 10%
Chinese refinery runs leapt nearly a tenth in May from a year ago, the fastest growth rate in 11 months, as oil firms picked up the pace to meet accelerating domestic summer demand and tap a profitable export market.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 June 15, 2007
Beijing: Chinese refinery runs leapt nearly a tenth in May from a year ago, the fastest growth rate in 11 months, as oil firms picked up the pace to meet accelerating domestic summer demand and tap a profitable export market.
Refiners processed a record 27.96 million tonnes last month, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, drawing down stocks built by record-high crude imports during the previous month.
That is a 9.7 per cent increase over a year earlier, although China's domestic end-user consumption likely grew more modestly given the mild 3.7 per cent rise in net oil product imports, which can account for up to a tenth of demand from the No 2 oil user.
The growth was in line with a Reuters survey, which found the country's top oil plants ramping up operations to peak rates to build inventories ahead of summer. Chinese refiners normally boost processing rates in the summer to meet swelling domestic demand and rising export requirements as the world's top oil consumer, the US, enters its driving season, sucking in cargoes from the East.
A surge in May petrol exports and a rapidly expanding fleet of family cars have tightened the domestic gasoline market.
In May alone, new car sales rose 23 per cent over a year ago at nearly 490,000 units, said an official industry association.
"Gasoline demand is really strong. Petrol sales grew faster than diesel," said a distribution official with Asia's top refiner Sinopec Corp from southern Guangdong province.
That was echoed in detailed data that showed a sharp increase in gasoline output at 12.5 per cent on year at 5.17 million tonnes, a pace unseen for many months, versus diesel's growth at 9.3 per cent.
Refinery throughput rates rose 6.5 per cent to 132.79 million tonnes, or 6.42 million bpd, in line with demand growth forecasts as Beijing expands its refining sector at a measured rate.
The International Energy Agency in its latest monthly report forecast total Chinese oil products demand would rise 6.1 per cent to 7.6 million bpd this year, down from the previous month's 6.4 per cent estimate.
China's domestic crude output climbed 2 per cent in May to 16.05 million tonnes, and rose 1.6 per cent in the first five months, continuing its slow but steady pace as the world's sixth-largest producer battles declining reserves.
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