China's refinery output in September fell for the sixth consecutive month

China's refinery production fell 5.4% in January compared to a year ago, according to official data released on Friday. This is the sixth consecutive month of declines, despite the opening of a brand new plant, as low fuel consumption and thin refining margins slowed processing.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), according to its data, showed that refiners processed 58.73 millions metric tons of crude last month. This is equivalent to 14,29 million barrels of oil per day.

As some refineries began to operate again after planned maintenance and a new refinery was opened in Shandong, the September level increased from 13.91 million bpd.

The NBS reported that the output for the first quarter of this year was 531.26 millions tons or 14.15million bpd. This is a 1.6% decrease compared to the same period last year. It's the fourth consecutive year-to date volume decline.

The data also showed that China's domestic crude oil production in September rose by 1.1 % year-on-year to 17.07 millions tons, or 4,15 million bpd.

The year-to-date production was up by 2%, at 159.87 millions tons or 4,26 million bpd.

The data revealed that natural gas production increased 6.8% over the same period last year, to 19.3 billion cubic meters (bcm). Production for the entire year has also grown 6.6% to 183 bcm. Reporting by Chen Aizhu, Editing by SonaliPaul)

(source: Reuters)