China’s refinery crude throughput rose 5.1% year on year to 52.1 million mt, or 12.73 million b/d in April, a record high on barrel per day basis, preliminary data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The volume was also up by 1.5% from 12.54 million b/d in March, when it almost matched the last historical high recorded in September last year. Over January-April, total refinery crude throughput across China was 4.7% higher year on year at 207.47 million mt, or 12.67 million b/d, the data showed.
In the upstream segment, China’s crude production in April edged up 0.6% year on year to 15.71 million mt, or an average of 3.84 million b/d. In the first four months of this year, China’s crude output was also up 0.6% year on year at 63.06 million mt, averaging 3.85 million b/d, the data showed. Meanwhile, natural gas production in China increased by 7.9% year on year to 14.1 Bcm in April. Natural gas output over January-April was around 58.1 Bcm, up 9% year on year.