China's state-owned refiners cut crude runs to 81% of nameplate capacity in June, from 83% in May, a Platts monthly survey showed Wednesday.

The survey covered 16 Sinopec refineries, 12 PetroChina refineries and CNOOC's Huizhou refinery with a combined processing capacity of around 289.8 million mt/year (5.82 million b/d).

The 29 refineries surveyed planned to process 19.24 million mt of crude oil in June, or 4.7 million b/d, accounting for around 81% of their nameplate capacity.

In comparison, 21 state-owned refineries which were surveyed last month processed 16.53 million mt of crude in May, accounting for around 83% of their total capacity, and up from 78% in April.

Market sources attributed the drop in crude runs in June to a few refineries undergoing maintenance and lowering their runs, mainly those owned by Sinopec, as well as to poor sales of gasoil and gasoline, according to the survey.

Sinopec's 16 surveyed refineries are expected to process a total 10.39 million mt of crude in June, or operate at 82% of their combined nameplate capacity, down from May's average rate of 84%.

Sinopec's 8.5 million mt/year Wuhan Petrochemical Co. refinery in central China's Hubei province plans to process 30,000 mt of crude in June, or 4% of its nameplate capacity. The refinery shut all its units June 4 for maintenance that is due to end July 20, Platts reported earlier.

Sinopec's 5 million mt/year Jingmen refinery in Hubei will see its run rate drop to 90% in June, from 105% in May, processing 370,000 mt of crude. The refinery shut a 800,000 mt/year fluid catalytic cracking unit mid-June for a month of maintenance.

Sinopec's 14 million mt/year Shanghai Petrochemical Co. refinery in eastern China has lowered its run rate by 14 percentage points to 70% to process 800,000 mt of crude oil in June, compared with 84% and 1 million mt in May. The refinery shut its 6 million mt/year crude distillation unit from early June for a month of scheduled maintenance.

Sinopec's 13.5 million mt/year Jinling Petrochemical Co. refinery in central China's Jiangsu province plans to process 1,000,000 mt of crude in June, or 90% of its nameplate processing capacity, down from 93% in May. The refinery shut a 3 million mt/year CDU from early June for 35 days of maintenance.

Lower run rates were also seen at Sinopec's 15.5 million mt/year Tianjin refinery in northern China and its 11.3 million mt/year Gaoqiao refinery in southeast China.

Tianjin plans to process 960,000 mt of crude in June, about 75% of its nameplate processing capacity, down from 84% in May. The refinery cut its run rate on the back of high inventory of oil products, refinery sources said.

Gaoqiao plans to process 850,000 mt of crude oil in June, accounting for 92% of its nameplate capacity, down from 99% in May.

PETROCHINA TO OPERATE AT 77.6% OF CAPACITY

PetroChina's 12 surveyed refineries will process 7.85 million mt of crude this month, or operate at 77.6% of nameplate capacity, up 0.9 percentage points from 76.7% in May, the survey showed.

PetroChina's 10 million Jilin Petrochemical Co. refinery in northeast China shut all its units in late May for a month of maintenance, putting its run rate for June at zero.

The company's 5 million Dagang Petrochemical Co. refinery in northern China plans to process 140,000 mt of crude in June, accounting for 34% of its nameplate capacity. The refinery started maintenance at all its units from May 23 and will restart them from late June.

A few refineries have raised run rates for June, which helped lift the overall run rate at PetroChina refineries by a marginal amount.

These include PetroChina's largest refinery, the 20.5 million mt/year Dalian Petrochemical refinery in northeast China, which plans to process 1.46 million mt of crude in June, accounting for 87% of its nameplate capacity, up from 75% in May.

PetroChina's 6 million mt/year Daqing Petrochemical refinery in northeast China has increased its operating rate to 110% to process 540,000 mt of crude in June, compared with 49% or 250,000 mt in May. The refinery resumed normal operations at end May after a 45-day turnaround.

PetroChina's 7.5 million mt/year Jinzhou Petrochemical refinery in northeast China plans to process 530,000 mt of crude in June, accounting for 86% of its nameplate capacity, up 20% from last month.

CNOOC's 12 million mt/year Huizhou refinery plans to process 1.01 million mt of crude oil in June, accounting for 102% of its nameplate processing capacity, unchanged from May, according to the survey.