Commodities and Futures News

China’s April oil refinery output plunges to two-year low as COVID curbs bite

2022.05.16 06:07

China's April oil refinery output plunges to two-year low as COVID curbs bite
FILE PHOTO: A VLCC oil tanker is seen at a crude oil terminal in Ningbo Zhoushan port, Zhejiang province, China May 16, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

BEIJING (Reuters) – China processed 11% less crude oil in April than a year earlier, with daily throughput falling to the lowest since March 2020 as refiners slashed operations on weaker demand due to widespread COVID-19 lockdowns.

Crude throughput last month was 51.81 million tonnes, equivalent to 12.61 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.

This compared with 13.8 million bpd in March and 14.09 million bpd in April last year.

Processing volumes for the January-April period were down 3.8% on the year at 223.25 million tonnes, or 13.58 million bpd.

With tight lockdowns that first centred in the financial hub of Shanghai before spreading across the nation, China’s demand for refined oil products has been falling, with gasoline and aviation fuel the worst hit.

To counter slowing fuel sales and bulging inventories, state refiner Sinopec (NYSE:SHI) began reducing operations since the second half of March to around 86% of capacity, down from 92.5% earlier in the year.

Independent plants, concentrated in the eastern province of Shandong, were operating at less than half their capacity last month with many running at their lowest levels since 2016.

“Demand was terrible and margins were so thin that plants ended up losing more money if processing more crude oil,” said a trading manager with a Shandong-based refiner.

China’s overall vehicle sales for April plunged almost 48% from a year earlier as COVID-19 lockdowns hit factories and showrooms. Sales in the first four months of 2022 dropped 12% from the same period a year earlier in the world’s largest vehicle market.

The NBS data also showed 4% increase in crude oil production to 17 million tonnes last month, or 4.14 million bpd, as national oil giants followed Beijing’s order to boost domestic supply security.

Production in the January-April period gained 4.3% compared with a year earlier.

Natural gas production grew 4.7% in April to 17.7 billion cubic meters and output year-to-date rose 6.2% versus the same period of 2021.

The high global gas prices, especially of spot liquefied natural gas, have driven consumers to use more of cheaper domestic supplies.

Source

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 97,882.23 0.28%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,380.73 1.22%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.06%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 252.64 1.85%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 659.46 0.36%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 1.44 1.24%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.422598 3.35%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.09%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 1.05 1.96%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,376.84 1.22%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.209203 3.03%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 41.67 1.75%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.538763 10.12%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 6.10 5.44%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000025 5.00%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,995.79 1.42%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 97,450.11 0.34%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 8.89 3.13%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 18.17 1.54%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 511.86 1.47%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,380.32 1.29%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.36 3.72%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 7.08 9.50%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.00002 3.87%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.62 0.03%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 96.72 4.54%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 11.01 0.11%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 12.37 6.37%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,556.96 1.38%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.142532 6.11%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 11.35 5.92%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.10%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.186632 6.09%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.563241 3.75%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 28.81 4.60%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 8.07 1.32%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.51 2.40%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 529.73 1.96%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.03%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.151939 1.67%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.859612 3.68%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 24.43 1.17%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000046 4.61%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999616 0.02%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.042791 1.10%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 2.29 7.73%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 5.62 6.57%
cosmos
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 8.59 7.14%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 56.19 8.96%
mantra-dao
MANTRA (OM) $ 3.66 2.26%