China’s oil refinery throughput rose 9.3% in 2023 to a record high, reversing a rare decline in 2022, as new plants in the world’s top refiner bolstered production to meet a post-pandemic recovery in fuel demand.

Refiners processed 734.8 million metric tons of crude oil last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday, or about 14.70 million barrels per day (bpd).

That’s up from 13.5 million bpd in 2022 when output slipped for the first time in two decades as Beijing’s tough COVID-19 control measures took a toll on demand.

Throughput in December was up 1.1% from the same month a year earlier to 60.11 million tons, the NBS data said, or about 14.16 million bpd, easing slightly from the previous month.

Processing volumes consistently recorded year-on-year growth for all the months of last year, with stronger expansions between July and October when China’s domestic fuel demand rebounded as more people travelled by car and air and coincided with summer school holidays and October’s Golden Week break.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Andrew Hayley; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing)