China's crude throughputs held near record highs at 14.18mn b/d in December, down marginally from 14.25mn b/d in November, national statistics bureau (NBS) data show.
Throughputs in 2020 as a whole totalled 674.41mn t or 13.51mn b/d, up by 3.2pc from 2019 to reach a new all-time high.
Independent refineries received more crude import quotas last year to help feed several new crude distillation units, boosting throughputs despite the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic early in the year.
The commerce ministry (MoC) issued three batches of non-state crude import quotas to independent refineries for a combined 3.68mn b/d, up by 10pc from 3.33mn b/d a year earlier.
Private-sector refiners Hengli and ZPC ran hard last year, exceeding their 400,000 b/d nameplate capacities to make full use of lower-priced crude feedstock. ZPC's crude throughputs averaged 460,000 b/d in 2020 and are on course to increase further after the company opened a 400,000 b/d expansion in November, doubling its capacity. Hengli ran at 7pc above its total capacity last year, according to Argus calculations.
State-controlled Sinopec started operating its new 200,000 b/d Zhanjiang refinery in June, while fellow state-run firm PetroChina revamped its Daqing refinery in August, expanding capacity by 70,000 b/d to 190,000 b/d.
Sinopec's crude runs averaged 4.76mn b/d in 2020, down by 4.9pc from a year earlier because of run cuts during the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak. This was equivalent to 78pc of the company's total 6.1mn b/d refining capacity last year.
China's domestic crude output was 3.84mn b/d in December, up by a slight 0.9pc from a year earlier. This took total output in January-December to 195mn t or 3.9mn b/d, higher by 1.6pc from 2019. Production wasin line with guidance from the national energy administration (NEA), which calling for domestic producers to target crude output of 193mn t or 3.86mn b/d in 2020.
Source: Argus