China Oct refinery output rebounds after fuel crunch

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's daily crude oil throughput rebounded in October from its lowest level in more than a year in the previous month, with refiners cranking up operations amid high fuel prices and robust demand.

Processing volumes in October were 58.4 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday, equivalent to 13.75 million barrels per day (bpd), up from a 16-month low of 13.64 million bpd in September.

Production was down 3% from October 2020, although total throughput for the first 10 months of 2021 reached 585.15 m
illion tonnes, up 5.2% from a year earlier. China's crude oil throughput,

Refined fuel product prices have been rising since mid-August on increased demand from industrial users and tight supply. Wholesale diesel and gasoline prices in southern China gained more than 30% through late October, when Beijing announced it would tap state fuel reserves.

Asia's largest oil refiner Sinopec Corp said then its refineries were running at full output, and that it had increased its diesel output by 20% in October from September. PetroChina, China's No.2 state refiner, also ramped up diesel supply in October.

The state-backed oil refiners have said they will continue to raise their diesel output through December.

Operational rates at independent refiners in China's oil refining hub Shandong were at around 73% in late October, up from 68% at end-September, according to data compiled by China-based Sublime Consultancy.

"Refiners have strong incentives to crank up operations as refining margins remain fat amid high diesel and gasoline prices. But operations could be curbed in late November due to winter pollution campaign," said analysts from JLC Consultancy in a note. China's diesel and gasoline prices,

The NBS data on Monday also showed China's crude oil output in October was 16.83 million tonnes, up 3% from a year earlier. Over the first 10 months of this year, output rose 2.5% to 166.19 million tonnes.

Natural gas output last month gained 0.5% from a year earlier to 16.5 billion cubic metres (bcm), while January-October production rose 9.4% to 168.4 bcm.

(tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude conversion)

(This story corrects to show September throughput was 13.64 million bpd, not 13.64 bpd, in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh; Editing by Kim Coghill and Kenneth Maxwell)