Shandong-based independent refiners' gasoil and gasoline stocks climbed in the first half of December, because consumption was slow while production was still quite large amid high refinery operating rates, industry sources said.
These refiners had a total of about 806,000 tonnes of gasoil and gasoline in stock on 15 December, a rise of 104,000 tonnes or 15% from two weeks before, ICIS C1 data showed.
Their gasoline stocks amounted to 374,000 tonnes, up by 66,000 tonnes and gasoil stockpiles grew by 38,000 tonnes to 432,000 tonnes.
Demand for gasoil and gasoline weakened in the first half of December as most buyers had finished stock replenishment. In addition, end-user demand was also damped by lower temperatures and bad weather.
Meanwhile, gasoline and gasoil production by Shandong independent refiners was still large when there was hardly any refinery maintenance. Their operating rates remained at about 46% on average in the period, the data indicated. Some refiners even ran their crude distillate units at full capacity to achieve their production targets for the year, industry sources said.
ICIS C1 conducts research that involves 20 independent refiners with crude processing capacities aggregating 52.4m tonnes/year, accounting for 76.1% of the total capacity of Shandong independent refiners.
