China's state-owned refiners expect crude runs to edge up to 83% in April compared with 80% in March, a Platts monthly survey showed Monday.
The survey covered PetroChina's 12 refineries and Sinopec's 15 refineries, with a combined processing capacity of around 338 million mt/year (5.70 million b/d).
The 27 refineries surveyed by Platts plan to process a total 23.18 million mt, or 4.72 million b/d, of crude oil in April, accounting for around 83% of their nameplate capacity.
In comparison, 32 of the state-owned refineries surveyed processed 6.07 million mt of crude oil in March, accounting for around 80% of their total processing capacity.
Separately, PetroChina's 12 refineries plan to process 7.43 million mt of crude oil in April, accounting for 81% of their nameplate processing capacity.
The run rate is higher than the 72% showed in March.
Some refineries returned online from maintenance, which led to the higher run rates in April, the survey showed.
PetroChina's 10 million mt/year Dalian West Pacific Petrochemical Co. refinery in northeast China was reported to have returned to process at 61% run rate from April 12.
Also, PetroChina's 5 million mt/year Dagang Petrochemical Co. refinery in north China, which had scheduled maintenance during March 1-25, has ended.
As a result, the refinery's crude throughput increased 2.9 million mt, or 72%, from March to 3.6 million mt.
PetroChina's 11.5 million mt/year Fushun Petrochemical Co. refinery in north China also restarted a 1.5 million mt/year fluid catalytic cracker in the middle of April.
Crude runs increased 25% from March's 48%, said a refinery source.
Maintenance in March at PetroChina's 10 million mt/year Qinzhou Petrochemical Co. refinery in south China is also finished.
Hence the crude runs increased 200,000 mt to 800,000 mt in April.
Meanwhile, the 5 million mt/year Huabei Petrochemical Co. refinery in north China suspended operation for a scheduled maintenance from April 1 to May 15, according to sources.
SINOPEC'S RUN RATES UP
Sinopec's 15 refineries plan to process 11.89 million mt of crude oil in April, accounting for 84% of their nameplate processing capacity.
The run rate is higher than March's 80%, the survey showed.
At Sinopec's 13.5 million mt/year Jinling Petrochemical Co. refinery in east China, it was reported that a 3 million mt/year crude distillation unit was back online after scheduled maintenance.
The crude throughput increased 180,000 mt to 1.03 million mt in April.
Sinopec's 8.5 million mt/year Wuhan Petrochemical Co. refinery in south China has also resumed operation from maintenance and ran at 60% from April 12, up 10% from March.
Sinopec's 8 million mt/year Yangpu Petrochemical Co. refinery in east China also completed maintenance for a 3.1 million mt/year hydrogenation unit in early April. The run rate was targeted at 110% in April, or 720,000 mt, according to a source from the refinery.
Sinopec's 12 million mt/year Fujian Petrochemical refinery in southern China plans to operate at a run rate of 61% in April, down from March's 91%, due to a scheduled maintenance in April.
The refinery has shut a 4 million mt/year crude distillation unit for two-month scheduled maintenance starting from late March, said a refinery source.
