China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec—the largest oil refiner in Asia—is cutting its refinery production by 600,000 bpd in February, due to decreased fuel demand amid the raging coronavirus outbreak, four sources familiar with the plans told Reuters on Monday. The spread of the coronavirus and its impact on fuel demand amid travel restrictions and thousands of canceled flights has already had analysts saying that refiners in China and throughout Asia would resort to reducing refinery runs because of depressed demand. China’s independent refiners were expected to cut refinery throughput more significantly because they are not allowed to export fuels, unlike the state-held corporations. Independent refiners in China’s Shandong province in the east have already cut refinery runs by as much as 30-50 percent and are now said to operate at less than half of their refining capacity, according to Reuters’ sources. Sinopec, for its part, is cutting […]