In the second half of 2020, a refining arm of China’s top refiner Sinopec, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, will increase its daily crude oil throughput.
In the July-December period, the company plans to raise its daily throughput by 7.8% to 7.68 mt or 304,700 bpd. In comparison, in the first half of this year, it only processed 7.02 mt, down by 6.1% year-on-year due to maintenance and the coronavirus pandemic.
The throughput for this year would still be under its target of 15.3 mt, while the refinery’s annual crude refining capacity is 16 mt.
In the January-June period, Shanghai Petchem posted a net loss of CNY1.7 billion (USD247.1 million) due to the crashing fuel demand affected by the virus outbreak. In the second quarter only, the company was forced to cut fuel exports.
However, the slumping oil prices also slashed the average crude refining cost in the first six months of this year by 17.9% year-on-year to CNY2,717/t (USD394.5/t) or USD54/barrel as it bought 84% of its crude from the middle east and 10% from the Latin America countries.
Looking forward, the company plans to sustain its full-load refining operations in the last six months of this year, mainly in raising the low sulfur marine fuel production.
