China's crude refinery output rebounds in Aug on new quotas
BEIJING (Reuters) — Chinese refineries processed 6.5% more crude oil in August than a year earlier at 47.12 MMt, or about 11.1 MMbpd, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.
August processing also rose from July's 10.71 MMbpd, which was the lowest in 10 mos.
The higher runs came as independent plants rushed to boost output with newly granted quotas and as a greenfield state refinery raised production after test operations.
For the first eight months of the year, refinery output was up 3.4% from the same period a year ago at 367.94 MMt, or 11.05 MMbpd.
Independent plants rushed to purchase crude oil after receiving a new batch of crude oil quotas from late June. PetroChina's 260,000 bpd refinery in southwestern Yunnan also contributed to higher throughput after test runs started in end-June.
Thursday's data also showed China's domestic crude oil output fell 3.1% last month from a year ago to 15.96 MMt, or 3.76 MMbpd.
Output during the January–August period was down 4.6 from a year earlier, but the decline has since late 2016 narrowed sharply as positive cash flows encouraged dominant state oil firms to expand productions.
Sinopec said last month it planned to pump 148 MMbbl of crude oil in the second half, up from 146 MMbbl in the first six months.
Natural gas production expanded 11.7% in August from last year to 12 Bcm, the strongest in four months.
Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Joseph Radford
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