China refined a record amount of crude last month as new plants owned by PetroChina Co. and Sinochem Group began operations.
Processing in the world’s second-largest oil consumer rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 40.17 million metric tons, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing. That’s equivalent to 10.52 million barrels a day, exceeding the previous high of 10.2 million in December 2012.
PetroChina’s Sichuan refinery and Sinochem’s Quanzhou plant started production in January. The Sichuan facility in southwest China has 12 units, including a refining complex with capacity of 10 million tons a year, according to Oilchem.net, a Shandong-based industry website.
“The Quanzhou refinery is still in the trial stage but the Sichuan plant should be ramping up runs in February,” Li Li, the research director at ICIS-C1 Energy, a consultant, said from Guangzhou. “The existing refineries only raised runs slightly last month from January amid sluggish fuel demand.”
China’s crude production in February was at 16.11 million tons and natural gas output at 10.4 billion cubic meters, the statistics bureau’s data show.
Refiners produced 8.83 million tons of gasoline and 14.14 million of diesel.
