China’s Refining Output Dips for First Time in Over Two Decades

Weaker fuel demand and depressed refining margins in 2024 resulted in the first annual decline in China’s refinery throughput in over 20 years, excluding the pandemic lockdown year of 2022, government data showed on Friday. Chinese refiners processed on average 14.13 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil last year, down by 1.6% compared to the record 14.7 million bpd processed in 2023 when China emerged from the pandemic lockdowns, per data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics cited by Reuters. Oil demand in China was lackluster…