C1 Energy (Shanghai) – Jun 10, 2010 －－－Operation rates of independent refineries in Shandong Province dropped to 36% Thursday, down 2 percentage points from one week ago, down 9 percentage points compared to a year earlier, C1's survey found.
Although domestic oil product prices were soft at present, some refineries lifted run rates on relatively low fuel oil prices in Singapore market, according to refinery sources. "It is good time to build feedstock inventory now, so we increased operating rates to ensure enough storage capacity to take in new arrivals of low-cost feedstock," said one source of the refineries.
As of Jun 10, 22 independent refineries were in operation in Shandong, feedstock throughput of which added up to about 54,000mt daily, down 4,100mt on week.
C1's survey involves in 29 independent refineries, with annual oil refining capacities aggregating 5.25-mil mt, accounting for 86% of the total topping refineries of Shandong independent refineries.
