- China’s GDP expands 8.1% in 2021, grows 4% in Q4
- Crude throughput to rise 454,000 b/d in 2022: Platts Analytics
- Crude output rises 3% to hit 4 million b/d in 2021
China’s crude throughput rose 4.6% year on year to 14.13 million b/d in 2021 despite refineries cutting crude runs by 2.1% in December to offset product inventory pressure, reports Platts quoting National Bureau of Statistics data released Jan. 17.
Higher throughput in 2021
The higher throughput in 2021 was attributed to refining capacity expansion, and as refineries produced more oil products to compensate for the reduction in imports of blending materials for gasoline and gasoil, analysts said.
China added about 200,000 b/d of operational capacity in 2021, which was mostly contributed by Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s phase 2 project. At the same time, refinery turnarounds amounted to 394,000 b/d in 2021, down by 145,000 b/d or 38% year on year, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.
Meanwhile, Beijing has introduced consumption taxes on light cycle oil and mixed aromatics imports starting June 12, dampening supplies of blended gasoline as well as gasoil and requiring refineries to increase throughput to meet the gap.
This came as China’s GDP expanded 8.1% in 2021. It rose by 4% year on year in the fourth quarter — the slowest pace in a year and a half — as Asia’s top oil consumer grappled with a slowing property investment sector, a coronavirus resurgence and Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to controlling the virus.
The oil product shortage emerged in September, leading refiners to boost their throughput in October and hit a five-month high of 14.57 million b/d in November.
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Source: Platts
