Chinese Oil Majors Refine Less Crude Due To ‘Maintenance Problems’

Chinese state-owned refiners' operating rates remained low in the first half of June, because of more refinery extended refinery maintenance, JLC data shows. This lull comes on the heels of a record breaking spring, in which Chinese refineries returned to record-high processing rates last month driven by the so-called teapots.

The operating rates averaged 74.90% on June 15, down by 1.86 percentage points from the end of May.

PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical in northeast China's Liaoning province began a turnaround at its 180,000 bbl/day refinery on June 1, expecting to restart the refinery on July 10, according to a source from the company. In addition, PetroChina Harbin Petrochemical in northeast China's Heilongjiang province started an overhaul at its 100,000 bbl/day refinery on June 12 and planned to complete maintenance on July 31, a source from the company said.

PetroChina Urumchi Petrochemical and Jinzhou Petrochemical are still carrying out maintenance that began in late April and early May. Lanzhou Petrochemical completed a turnaround at its 260,000 bbl/day refinery on June 15, but it has not brought this refinery back to normal operation yet.

Sinopec Qingdao Refining and Chemical Co continues its maintenance period at its 240,000 bbl/day refinery that started on May 25 and the Zhanjiang Dongxing Refinery in Guangdong is still undergoing an overhaul that was scheduled to last from May 20 to July 18.

Luoyang Petrochemical in Henan province is still in the process of restarting its 160,000 bbl/day refinery, after completing maintenance in the first half of June, a source from the company said.

By JLC International

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