Singapore — Crude oil throughput at China’s domestic refineries dropped 5.4% year on year to 12.12 million b/d in January-February amid the coronavirus outbreak, which was the first year-on-year decline since 2009, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, or NBS, showed Monday. China’s crude throughput fell 5.3% year on year in January-February 2009 to 6.41 million b/d amid the financial crisis then, NBS data showed. The January-February reduction this year was within S&P Global Platts’ estimates, published last month, based on surveys. S&P Global Platts estimated January throughput at around 13.7 million b/d, falling from 13.84 million b/d in December, as small-scale independent refineries cut their run rates to 63.5% in the month from 72.2% in December due to weakening demand amid the coronavirus outbreak and the Lunar New Year celebrations, while the new 400,000 […]