Chinese oil refinery throughput surged to a record in March, data showed on April 18, as refiners stepped up runs to capture strong export demand and build up inventories ahead of planned maintenance.

Total refinery throughput reached 63.9 MMtonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed, equivalent to 14.9 MMbbl/d. That was up 8.8% from a year earlier.

Throughput was 13.8 MMbbl/d in March 2022 and 14.36 MMbbl/d for this year’s January-February period.

Total first-quarter throughput was 179.3 MMtonnes, 5.2% higher than the 171.4 MMtonnes in the same period last year.

Export demand for gasoline and aviation fuel has recovered as more people traveled following the scrapping of COVID-19 controls, which in turn have supported higher refinery runs.

China's refined fuels exports in March surged by 35.1% from a year earlier, customs data showed last week.

Gasoline margins in Asian trade rose to two-month highs in late March, supported by tighter supplies from Indian refiners.

Cheaper crude imports from Russia, which sells oil to China at steep discounts because of a scarcity of other willing buyers, also enhanced refining margins and encouraged greater production.

Major private refiners, such as Zhejiang Petrochemical (ZPC) and Hengli Petrochemical have reportedly been operating at or above their official capacity as they look to profit from these strong margins.

Refiners are also expected to increase stockpiles of refined oil products ahead of upcoming maintenance at large state-owned refineries to ensure security of domestic supply.

Sinopec's Luoyang refinery will shut down its whole plant for 54 days in mid-May, while PetroChina's Changqing refinery began a 55-day overhaul at the start of April.

NBS data also showed China's crude oil production in March was up 2.4% from a year earlier to 18.2 MMtonnes, about 4.28 MMbbl/d.

Natural gas production grew 4% to 20.5 Bcm from last year's 19.7 Bcm.

(Tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude oil)

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