China's refinery production in April fell by 1.4% on an annual basis

China's crude throughput in April fell from a year ago, according to official data released on Monday. This was due to maintenance carried out at state-owned refining plants and because independent plants reduced production amid low margins.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the world's second largest oil consumer processed about 14,12 million barrels of crude per day in April.

The daily processing rate for April was lower by 4.9% than in March and 1.3% below the previous year.

In China's main refining hub, Shandong, independent refineries also known as teapots saw their profit margins shrink during the month.

According to Chinese consultancy Sublime China, Chinese refineries ran at 73.83% of their capacity in April. This is the lowest level since 2022. It was down 1.7 points from March, and 5.35 points from one year ago.

According to the consultancy, the theoretical average profit of Shandong teapots is 270 yuan (about $37.5) per metric tonne, down by 58 yuan from March, due to falling gasoline and diesel prices.

Margins were affected by the weakening fuel demand.

According to JLC, the apparent domestic gasoline consumption dropped 4% on an annual basis during the first quarter. Diesel consumption also fell 6.1%.

For the first four month of the year, refiners still processed 0.8% more oil than the previous year - totaling 240.27 millions tons or 14.62million bpd.

Reports have revealed that two independent refineries sanctioned recently by the U.S. experienced supply disruptions, including difficulties receiving cargoes in ports and securing funding.

Concerns about sanctions has also caused five plants in Shandong to stop buying Iranian crude oil since last month.

NBS data shows that China's crude oil production rose by 1.5% in April, to 17.72 millions tons or 4.31 millions bpd.

The crude oil production for the year to date rose by 1.2%, reaching 71.81 millions tons or 4.37million bpd.

The data revealed that the natural gas production increased by 8.1% compared to a year ago, reaching 21.5 billion cubic metres. Production for the first quarter of the year also increased by 5.3%. (metric ton = 7.3 barrels of crude oil)

(source: Reuters)