Taiwan August crude imports down 49pc from July

SINGAPORE: Taiwan's August crude imports dropped 49 percent from the month before, as refinery outages slashed demand for crude, government data showed on Thursday.

August crude import volume stood at 13.9 million barrels, down from July's 27.3 million barrels, with CPC canceling two of its tenders to purchase heavy sweet crude for August delivery due to a "minor issue (that) cropped up at its refinery".

Formosa also diverted 2 million barrels of Oman crude to be stored in South Korea, after its 540,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant was taken offline due to a fire in end-July.

Refinery throughput for August was at 15.6 million barrels, or about 504,000 barrels per day (bpd), 41.4 percent lower from July's 26.6 million barrels.

Demand for oil products in August also fell almost 13 percent to 22.3 million barrels, compared to July's 25.6 million barrels, with most of the products dipping 1-7 percent. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and naphtha fell the most by 19.4 and 33.6 percent respectively, with Asia's largest naphtha buyer Formosa shutting its largest No. 3 cracker in mid-August for maintenance, while another remained offline after a fire in May.

Copyright Reuters, 2011