Independent refineries’ crude inventory hovers around 4-year low

The crude storage capacity utilization rate of independent refineries in Shandong Province averaged 43.90% in the week ending May 29, up 0.08% from the previous week and down 3.88% year on year, per OilChem data.

 

The independent refineries’ storage capacity utilization rates have been hovering around a four-year low since entering 2024, primarily due to poor refining profits, which discouraged the refineries from building stocks of crude oil.

 

Source: Mysteel OilChem

 

OilChem survey showed that the arrivals of feedstock, including crude oil, bitumen mixtures, and heavy oil, at ports in Shandong Province and Tianjin City imported by independent refineries and traders touched a near-term low in January 2024 since October 2022.

 

Looking ahead, the independent refineries are likely to ramp up the purchases of crude oil in the face of rebounding refining profits, though they were still relatively low. In the week ending May 30, the independent refineries in Shandong reported an average crude oil refining profits of Yuan 321.58/tonnes, up 21.63% from the previous week, and down 67.39% YoY.

 

More importantly, OilChem has already observed an increase in the number of crude carriers arriving in Shandong.

 

Source: Mysteel OilChem

 

Written by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com

Edited by Navy Liu, liuchuanjun@mysteel.com