China's July crude throughput slips 1.6% after June record high

Chinese refiners processed 27.51 million mt (6.5 million b/d) of crude in July, 1.6% inching lower from a monthly record high of 27.97 million mt in June, according to preliminary figures obtained Friday from China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Compared with July last year, last month's crude throughput still posted a 6.7% rise, though the growth rate was much slower than the 10%-plus annual increases seen in May and June this year.

Maintenance was one reason for lower crude runs during the month as refineries under the country's state-controlled oil giants Sinopec Corp. and PetroChina timed their overhauls to coincide with the bull run in international crude markets, traders said. Their refining margins have been squeezed since June by soaring crude import costs and artificially low prices for domestic oil products set by the Chinese government to keep inflation from rising too fast, the traders added.

Output of gasoline and kerosene, however, was not affected by the slower growth in annual crude throughput as Chinese refiners adjusted their yields to produce the products that were in high demand during the summer travelling season. Gasoline production jumped 13% year on year to 5.1 million mt in July,and was 1.18% higher than June, the NBS figures showed. July's output of kerosene, which also included jet fuel, soared 24.3% from a year earlier to 1.03 million mt, and was 28,600 mt higher than June.

Chinese gasoil production slipped to 10.48 million mt last month, after hitting a peak 10.69 million mt in June. Year-on-year comparison showed a 6.5% rise in July's output, according to the NBS figures.

Between January and July this year, Chinese refiners hiked their crude throughput by 7% to 188.26 million mt (6.48 million b/d) of crude.

Kerosene output jumped 15% during the comparison period to 6.6 million mt, while gasoline production grew 8.7% to 34.9 million mt. Growth in gasoil output was slower than the jump in crude throughput in January-July at 6.2% to 71.1 million mt. Fuel oil production gained 6.8% at 12.8 million mt in the seven-month period.

JANUARY-JULY CRUDE OUTPUT RISES 1.1%; GAS JUMPS 17.1%

China's crude production in the first seven months of this year edged up 1.1% over the 2006 period to 108.69 million mt, while natural gas output soared 17.1% during the comparison periods to 38.56 billion cubic meters (6.42 billion cubic feet per day), the NBS showed.

In July alone, the country pumped 15.47 million mt of crude, 1.6% less than the previous month's 15.72 million mt. Year-on-year comparison of the July figure also posted a 1.7% drop.

Natural gas production reached 5.54 Bcm last month, representing a 1.13% rise from 5.478 Bcm seen in June and a 19.8% surge year on year.