S China Posts Notable Rise in Q1-Q3 Crude Throughput: NBS

South China's crude throughout in the first nine months of 2012 rose by 7.5% year on year, higher than the other Chinese regions, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The rise was mainly boosted by the startup at Sinopec's 5m tonne/year Beihai refinery in late 2011 and higher operating rates at Fujian Refining & Petrochemical's 12m tonne/year refinery, market sources said.

The region refined 58.6m tonnes of crude in the January-September period, NBS data showed.

Meanwhile, northwest China recorded a 7.4% of increase in its crude throughput, reaching 49.37m tonnes, the data also showed.

Market sources ascribed the rise to the startup at Sinopec's 5m tonne/year crude distillate unit in Ningxia at the end of 2011 and no major turnarounds at refineries under Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group).

Shandong's crude throughput gained by 6.8% to 50.44m tonnes in the nine months on fewer turnarounds at major refineries and high operating rates at teapot refineries.

However, east China's and north China's crude throughput dropped by 4.2% and 20.1% respectively in the period because of the shutdown at most units of Zhenhai Refining & Chemical and the turnaround at Tianjin Petrochemical refinery.