CHINA DATA: Crude oil throughput in December declines as refiners lower monthly production rate to 78% – S&P Global

PetroChina Reduces Operation Rates Due to Yunnan Maintenance

Sinopec refinery operating rates are broadly stable

ZPC’s third CDU still in testing

Singapore –
China’s crude throughput edged down in December, with state and independent refiners posting lower run rates due to some maintenance work towards the end of the year, the latest industry data and information showed. collected by S&P Global Platts.

State-run PetroChina’s average operating rate fell this month due to maintenance at its subsidiary refineries, while another state-owned Sinopec’s operating rates at its refineries were relatively stable from November.

The average execution rate of the four state-owned oil majors, Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC and Sinochem, stood at around 78% so far in December, up from 80% in November, according to the data.

State-owned refiners plan to process 6.9 million bbl / d of crude oil in December combined, which is 78% of their nominal capacity of 8.86 million b / d. By comparison, refiners processed 7.1 million bpd of crude oil in November, 80% of nominal capacity.

A total of 39 refineries are managed by Crown corporations. They include 20 Sinopec refineries, 17 PetroChina refineries, CNOOC’s Huizhou Petrochemical and Sinochem’s Quanzhou petrochemical refinery.

The Yunnan petrochemical refinery of PetroChina in southwest China was shut down for maintenance starting Dec. 5, lowering the state oil company’s average operating rate for the month.

The company’s petrochemical plant in Sichuan, the same region, increased its December production rate by about four percentage points from November, due to improving downstream margins.

Further north, the Dalian Wepec refinery has slightly increased its operating rate since the refinery completed maintenance on one of its secondary units, increasing the overall operating rate by around eight percentage points to around 78. % in December.

In addition, Daqing Petrochemical in northeast Heilongjiang Province has gradually increased its crude throughput, with the plant’s new crude distillation unit processing more crude ESPO blending from the Russian Far East, according to sources familiar with the refining operation.

Sinopec

Sinopec kept its average operating rate stable from November at around 82% of capacity, according to data from Platts.

Its Jinling Petrochemical refinery slashed its operating rate by 21 percentage points from November, the CDU of the 8 million tonne-per-year plant as well as some of its secondary units will be completely shut down for the month.

Meanwhile, three of Sinopec’s other refineries, including Qingdao Petrochemical, Wuhan Petrochemical and Qilu Petrochemical, restarted after the maintenance was completed, making up for Jinling’s loss of crude throughput.

Qilu Petrochemical, which has restarted its units since the end of November, has yet to ramp up its operating rate in December to return to its normal level of around 85%, due to the emissions control measures put in place in the region. during the winter.

In addition, some refineries have reduced production yields of several petroleum products but increased production of petrochemicals, due to better downstream margins, according to a source from the Sinopec refinery.

Independent refiners

Most independent Chinese refineries cut operating rates in December, with the exception of the Hengli Petrochemical refinery (Dalian).

The 20 million tonne / year Hengli refinery in northeast China raised its operating rate to around 107 percent in December from 105 percent last month.

Although it ran out of crude import quotas, the refinery processed more domestic crude, which helped the plant maintain such a high operating rate.

However, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s average utilization rate of 20 million tonnes / year for three of its CDUs was around 70% in December, with the third CDU still being tested, according to a source at the ‘company.

This was more than 10 percentage points lower than the November average utilization rate of about 83%.

That could translate to about 1.78 million tonnes of crude throughput loss during the month, down 11% from November.

Meanwhile, 45 small-scale private-sector refineries in Shandong Province slightly lowered their combined average operating rate to around 73 percent as of December 17, from around 76 percent in November, according to local news provider JLC. .

However, domestic refining margins remain healthy and they will support execution rates in the coming weeks, a JLC analyst said.

SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE OF STATE REFINANTS, RESTARTMENTS IN 2020 / EARLY 2021

• Sinopec’s petrochemical plant in Qingdao restarted around December 14 after scheduled maintenance that began on October 10.
• Sinopec’s Wuhan Petrochemical has restarted after two months of maintenance running from around October to December 15.
• Sinopec’s Qilu Petrochemical restarted its 8 million ton / year CDU and some secondary units from the end of November.
• Jinling Petrochemical, Sinopec’s 21 million tonnes / year, has shut down an 8 million tonnes / year CDU as well as some secondary units for about 40 days of maintenance since November 18.
• PetroChina’s 13 million-ton-per-year Yunnan petrochemical refinery was shut down from December 5 for approximately 50-day maintenance until the end of January.
• CNOOC’s Huizhou Petrochemical will be closed for maintenance in February-April 2021.
• Sinopec’s Changling Petrochemical will close for maintenance from around February 19, 2021, for around 55 days.

Average execution rates of major Chinese refiners in December 2020

Source: S&P Global Platts