BEIJING, April 3 - China's overall crude inventories at the end of February dropped 1.6 percent from a month before to 36.6 million tonnes, a Xinhua newsletter said on Friday, as refineries stepped up operations to get ready for an increase in up demand.
This was in line with official statistics that showed China's daily refinery output rose to its highest in four months in February, while the decline from a year earlier narrowed.
"China's crude throughput in the following two or three months may stand at about 28 million tonnes on expectation that more infrastructure would debut," the bi-weekly China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals (OGP) reported, citing an expert at top state oil firm CNPC.
China's refiners, including those belonging to oil majors Sinopec Corp and CNPC's listed subsidiary PetroChina processed 25.8 million tonnes or 6.73 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in February.
The February crude stocks, including those for the two oil majors, equivalent to 267 million barrels, is enough to cover 33 days of national demand based on 8 million barrels of daily Chinese consumption.
OGP cited the unnamed CNPC expert as forecasting that China's monthly crude output would be 14.5-15.5 million tonnes while monthly imports be 14 million tonnes in the next few months.
Gasoline inventories at CNPC and Sinopec fell 2.7 percent at the end of February to 31.9 million barrels from a month earlier, while diesel stocks dipped 0.2 percent to 53.7 billion barrels, OGP said, citing data from CNPC.
The figures did not tally with those from a local media report just over a week ago that said refined fuel stocks rose 11 percent in February to a historical high of 14.85 million tonnes, despite a strong rebound in sales.
The media report cited the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, which recently started to release nationwide data on refined fuel stocks, including gasoline, diesel and kerosene. It did not provide a breakdown.
China normally does not publish inventory figures. The data released by the association is believed to also include some inventories held by independent oil dealers, giving bigger figures than the OGP data that mainly tracks stocks held by Sinopec and CNPC.
This was in line with official statistics that showed China's daily refinery output rose to its highest in four months in February, while the decline from a year earlier narrowed.
"China's crude throughput in the following two or three months may stand at about 28 million tonnes on expectation that more infrastructure would debut," the bi-weekly China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals (OGP) reported, citing an expert at top state oil firm CNPC.
China's refiners, including those belonging to oil majors Sinopec Corp and CNPC's listed subsidiary PetroChina processed 25.8 million tonnes or 6.73 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in February.
The February crude stocks, including those for the two oil majors, equivalent to 267 million barrels, is enough to cover 33 days of national demand based on 8 million barrels of daily Chinese consumption.
OGP cited the unnamed CNPC expert as forecasting that China's monthly crude output would be 14.5-15.5 million tonnes while monthly imports be 14 million tonnes in the next few months.
Gasoline inventories at CNPC and Sinopec fell 2.7 percent at the end of February to 31.9 million barrels from a month earlier, while diesel stocks dipped 0.2 percent to 53.7 billion barrels, OGP said, citing data from CNPC.
The figures did not tally with those from a local media report just over a week ago that said refined fuel stocks rose 11 percent in February to a historical high of 14.85 million tonnes, despite a strong rebound in sales.
The media report cited the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, which recently started to release nationwide data on refined fuel stocks, including gasoline, diesel and kerosene. It did not provide a breakdown.
China normally does not publish inventory figures. The data released by the association is believed to also include some inventories held by independent oil dealers, giving bigger figures than the OGP data that mainly tracks stocks held by Sinopec and CNPC.
