Main refineries in Northwest China are expected to run at the year's lowest rates at the end of August because of continuous turnarounds, C1's research showed.
PetroChina's 5-mil-mt/yr Changqing Petrochemical went into overall turnaround on Aug 20 and the refiner’s 10-mil-mt/yr Dushanzi Petrochemical shut all units for 50-day maintenance on Aug 9.
The turnarounds may lead to tightening supply of oil products in South and Southwest China.
Earlier, unplanned maintenance of PetroChina Dalian Petrochemical's crude distillate unit has affected PetroChina's oil product supply to South China.
PetroChina imported a 50,000-mt cargo of gasoil to South China on Aug 19, which is rarely seen before.
Oil products produced by Northwest China refineries are usually transmitted to Southwest China via the Lanzhou-Chengdu-Chongqing pipeline.
Major Chinese refineries would go into the year's second peak season for turnaround from July, and the peak may extend to the entire third quarter, because some refineries delayed their schedules, C1 reported earlier.
According to C1's estimation, average run rates of 23 major refineries in China would be as low as 78-80% in the third quarter of 2011.
PetroChina Lanzhou Petrochemical, with a topping capacity of 13-mil mt per year, completed maintenance of its 5-mil-mt/yr CDU at the end of July.
