China’s crude oil processing in September fell compared to the previous month, as refiners shut for seasonal maintenance amid an economic slowdown.
Refineries processed 42.43 million tons of crude last month, or about 10.37 million barrels a day, according to data released on Monday by the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics.
The shutdown comes amid slowing economic expansion in the world’s second-biggest oil user, Bloomberg reported.
Gross domestic product in the three months through September grew 6.9% from a year earlier, the slowest quarterly pace since the first three months of 2009, based on previously announced data.
China’s apparent oil demand last month fell 1.8% to 10.16 million barrels a day, the second-lowest in 11 months.
“It is peak season for refinery maintenance,” Gao Jian, an analyst with SCI International, a Shandong-based energy consultant, said by phone. “Plants are also curbing their runs because of pressure from high stockpiles of refined products.”
Net oil product exports climbed to the highest in 11 months in September while crude imports rose 8.6% from the previous month to 6.83 million barrels a day, customs data showed last week.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation’s largest refiner, shut its 5 million ton-a-year Qingdao refinery in mid-September for two months and PetroChina Co.’s similarly sized Hohhot refinery in northwestern China has been undergoing work since August, according to Oilchem.net.
China’s power output last month fell 3% from a year earlier to 454.8 billion kilowatt-hours, the data released on Monday showed. China’s crude output rose 2.7% from a year earlier to 17.74 million tons while natural gas production climbed 1.1% to 9.6 billion cubic meters, according to the NBS data.
