State-owned and independent refiners in China cut their crude throughput in September on various factors, an industry survey showed. The utilisation rate at the country’s four state refiners fell to 82% in September from 84% in August. As a result, China’s overall crude throughput is expected to drop further from the 15-month low of 58.35 million tons in August.
Sinopec utilised 84% of its refining capacity in September, lower than 88% in August. The company was carrying out scheduled maintenance at its Shijiazhuang and Qilu plants. Meanwhile, its Jinling refinery in Jiangsu trimmed its run rates by around three percentage points amid the province’s control on power consumption and carbon emissions.
Sinochem’s Quanzhou refinery also lowered its runs slightly in September because its residual cracking unit underwent a catalyst replacement. The refinery is set for a total turnaround in November. PetroChina cut its utilisation rate by one percentage point from August to 75% in September because of limited oil product outlets.
Private refiner Hengli Petrochemical cut its run rates further from 100% in August to about 91% in September, the lowest level since May 2020. Fellow independent refiner Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical cut the utilisation rate at its two 10 million tons/year CDUs to around 90% in late September from 100% in August. ZPC shut down its third CDU in mid-September due to a local policy on energy conservation. Independent refineries in Shandong also trimmed their combined run rates from 66.8% in August to 64.8% as of September 22.
