Chinese May crude throughput up 1% on month, stocks likely fell for 2nd month

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - China’s throughput of crude oil rose 1% on the month to 14.24 million bpd in May, data published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday, which, combined with lower imports, likely means crude stocks fell for the second straight month.

Refinery throughput totalled 60.5 million mt compared with 57.9 million mt a month earlier.

May’s figure is up 4.4% on the year and a sharp 12.9% over the same month in 2019 since more refineries came online over the last two years.

Total production was 17.03 million mt, 3.5% higher than in May 2019, but unchanged from April in barrels per day terms at 4 million bpd.

With crude oil imports last month falling 1.7% compared to a month earlier to 9.65 million bpd, it indicates Chinese crude stocks fell over the course of the month at a rate of 600,000 bpd (18.6 million barrels over the month).

It is the second successive month that crude stocks likely fell, with refinery throughput also outstripping imports and production by 280,000 bpd in April.

The likely fall in stocks comes after several months of high imports as independent refiners took advantage of a 20% increase in import quotas.

However, earlier this month Chinese authorities were reported to have started a crackdown on crude imports by independent refiners by ordering state-owned PetroChina to curtail its trade of import quotas.