China's June oil throughput hits lowest level since pandemic on Iran war woes

Beijing: China's ​June crude throughput fell to its lowest level ​since the pandemic, official data showed on Wednesday, as the Iran war tightened supply and high prices curbed demand in China.

Refinery throughput ‌fell 17.7% ⁠from ⁠a year earlier to 51.24 million metric tons, or about 12.47 ​million barrels per day, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

June ​throughput was the lowest since March 2020, during the Covid pandemic, and was comparable to levels seen ​in 2018.


Throughput in the first half ⁠of the ‌year dropped 4.9% from a year ago ​to 343.87 ​million tons, or 13.87 million bpd, ⁠according to the data.

The utilisation rate of China's ​crude distillation units stood at 57.72% in June, ​down 3.28 percentage points month on month and down 13.09 percentage points year on year, according to Chinese consultancy Oilchem.

The low run rate was a result of weak domestic demand and refined oil product export ‌restrictions, according to Vortexa analyst Emma Li.

China's June domestic crude oil production fell 0.5% year ​on year to ​18.12 million tons, ⁠according to official data.

In the first six months, oil output was 109.43 million tons, up 0.9% from a year ​earlier.

Natural gas production rose 1.1% year on year in June to 21.4 billion cubic meters (bcm). Output for the year to date was 133.0 bcm, up 1.6%.