OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2014. China's state-owned refiners are lowering planned crude runs in January to average 80% capacity, down from 84% in December, Platts monthly survey showed.

The 24 refineries surveyed plan to process a combined 19 million mt (4.49 million b/d) of crude oil in January. Last month, 22 refineries were surveyed.

The survey does not include two new refineries -- PetroChina?s 10 million mt/year Pengzhou refinery and Sinochem?s 12 million mt/year Quanzhou refinery -- which started trial runs last week.

Both refineries are still undergoing test runs, and it will take some time for them to start commercial operations, sources said.

The January survey covered Sinopec's 13 refineries, PetroChina's 10 refineries and CNOOC's Huizhou refinery, which have a combined capacity of 278.7 million mt/year.

CNOOC's 12 million mt/year Huizhou refinery in southern Guangdong province is keeping runs largely steady, processing 1.02 million mt of crude, equivalent to 100% capacity in January, compared with 101% in December, the survey showed. PETROCHINA'S JAN RUN RATE DOWN TO 76%, FROM 80% IN DEC

PetroChina's 10 refineries polled this month are lowering planned runs to 76% capacity in January, from 80% last month.

With a total nameplate capacity of 110 million mt/year, the 10 refiners plan to process 7.14 million mt of crude in January.

The drop was mainly seen from PetroChina's 10.5 million mt/year Lanzhou Petrochemical company, which plans to process 840,000 mt of crude in January, averaging 94% run rate, down by 15 percentage points from December.

"The sales of gasoline and gasoil is not good in January, so we cut the run rate. Also in December we needed to ramp up runs to meet the annual processing target," said a source with the refinery in northwestern Gansu province. SINOPEC'S JAN RUN RATE DROPS TO 81%, FROM 84% IN DEC

The average utilization rate of the 13 Sinopec refineries surveyed this month dropped from 84% last month to 81% capacity in January, processing 2.56 million b/d of crude.

Sinopec's 9.2 million mt/year Hainan refinery in southern Hainan province, plans to process 165,516 b/d of crude in January, or 700,000 mt. This accounts for 90% of its capacity, down by 14 percentage points from December.

Meanwhile, the 11.5 million mt/year Qilu refinery in eastern Shandong has cut runs by eight percentage points to 92% of capacity in January, processing 900,000 mt of crude. This compares with 980,000 mt of crude in December.

Runs at Sinopec's 13.2 million mt/year Guangzhou refinery in Guangdong is capped at around 89% capacity, because of an ongoing turnaround at its 1 million mt/year reforming unit. The reformer is scheduled for restart this weekend, from a maintenance that started in mid-December.

Guangzhou plans to process 1 million mt of crude oil in January, accounting for 89% of its nameplate processing capacity, down by six percentage points from December.