BEIJING: China’s crude oil throughput in January and February rose 3% compared to the same two months a year earlier, data showed on Monday, as refineries raised production to meet strong demand for transport fuels over the busy Lunar New Year travel period.
Total refinery throughput in the world’s second-largest oil consumer was 118.76 million metric tons, equivalent to 14.45 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
China combines data for January and February into one release to smooth out the impact of the Lunar New Year holidays, which fall in either of these months each year.
However, Reuters’ calculations based on NBS’s online database showed the year-on-year growth was at a smaller 2.3% and on a daily basis the increase was only 0.6% versus 14.36 million bpd in February 2023 when the month is one day shorter.
This suggests the agency may have revised down last year’s figures.
NBS was not immediately available for comment. China’s crude imports in the first two months of the year rose 5.1% from a year earlier, customs data showed earlier in March, underscoring what analysts described as solid fuel demand in the world’s largest oil importer.
Travel during the holiday increased significantly compared to 2023, when the holiday coincided with the tail-end of China’s exit from COVID restrictions in late 2022.
The number of domestic trips during this year’s holiday grew by 34.3% from a year earlier, totalling 474 million, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed.
International air travel also surged.
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Inbound and outbound trips grew by 2.8 times from the same holiday period last year to 13.52 million, according to the National Immigration Administration.
However, despite resurgent travel, independent refiners cut throughput as margins thinned, especially in February, capping the national output rise.
JLC, a China-based commodities consultancy, estimated that independent plants in the refining hub of Shandong province ran crude units at an average of 58.27% of capacity in February, down 4.91 percentage points from January and down 9.6 percentage points from a year earlier.
For 2024 as a whole, state oil major China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has forecast refinery throughput will grow by 1.8% to a record 15.04 million bpd, amid buoyant demand for jet fuel and stable gasoline consumption.
However, CNPC analysts expect average refinery utilization rates this year to fall slightly to 78.3% as capacity increases.
Meanwhile, the statistics bureau showed that China’s January-February domestic crude oil production rose 2.9 % on year to 35.11 million metric tons, or 4.27 million bpd, which according to Reuters’ record of NBS data is the highest daily rate since March 2023.
Natural gas production rose 5.9 % in January-February over the same year-earlier level to 41.7 billion cubic meters (bcm).
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