Oil product inventories of sales branches under PetroChina and Sinopec declined because of lower output from refineries affiliated to the two oil giants.
PetroChina's wholesale subsidiaries held 6.5-mil mt of oil product stocks at the end of July, down by 7% on month; meantime, Sinopec's stock of gasoline fell 7.7%.
The sales branches held 4.82-mil mt of oil product stocks in 13 major grain-producing areas as of Jul 31, down by 3.45% on month, according to latest data released by the National Development & Reform Commission. Gasoil inventories of them decreased by 1.83% to 2.81-mil mt, the data showed.
The July oil product output of major refineries was affected by extensive turnarounds and shutdowns of some units at Huizhou Refinery and Dalian Petrochemical caused by fire, market sources said.
PetroChina and Sinopec cut oil product allocations to most underlying wholesale branches in August.
Despite lower inventories, domestic oil product prices are in downtrend as international crude prices slumped since last week.
The 13 major grain-producing areas include Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan.
