Refineries affiliated to Sinopec and PetroChina are expected to process 29.5-30-mil mt of crude in total in August, up by 1.77% from the previous month, C1's research found.

The throughput of Sinopec will be 18.3-18.5-mil mt, up by 3.31% on month; that of PetroChina will inch down by 0.61% to 11.4-12-mil mt.

Crude throughput of the two refiners will fall significantly in September, when Sinopec will shut 15-mil-mt/yr refining capacity for turnarounds and PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical's turnaround will remain underway.

C1's research involves in 35 refineries subsidiary to Sinopec (crude processing capacities aggregate 260-mil mt per year) and 31 under PetroChina (capacities aggregate 174-mil mt per year). The combined capacity of the refineries accounts for 70% of China’s total (capacities of independent refineries inclusive).