China’s crude throughput hit a record high in June, data from the national statistics bureau showed. This is despite lower domestic demand for fuels. According to the data, crude runs averaged 14.08 million bpd last month, increasing by 9% from June last year. The higher runs also matched a strong gain in China’s oil imports, which hit an all-time high of nearly 13 million bpd in June.
The state-owned assets supervision and administration commission (SASAC) on July 16 said fuel sales by China’s state-controlled companies increased by 40% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter and were higher than a year earlier. Refiners ramped up throughput despite weaker demand for gasoline and diesel last month. CNPC’s research arm ETRI said more products went into inventories and to meet the demand for petrochemicals.
China produced 3.95 million bpd of crude domestically in June, up by 1.5% from May. Chinese upstream producers have committed to stabilising production. Meanwhile, the country’s national energy administration last month increased crude production target for 2020 to 3.86 million bpd.
