China produced 1.42-mil mt of fuel oil in September, up by 6.39% from the previous month, but down by 25.6% from the same period last year, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
The increase could be mainly attributable to brisk demand for blendstock like slurry and residue as blended fuel oil prices climbed, market sources said.
Additionally, falling bitumen prices made some producers shift to produce residue, they added.
China's crude throughput in September was 36.09-mil mt, down by 1.88% on month but up by 1.5% year on year, according to the data.
China's fuel oil output in the first nine months of the year was 13.61-mil mt, up by 0.6% year on year, the data indicated. Crude throughput reached 333.52-mil mt in the period, a rise of 6.0% from the same period last year, according to the data.
