PETROCHINA Co, the nation's biggest oil producer, plans to boost crude processing volume by 12 percent this year to help ease domestic fuel shortages.
PetroChina plans to process 120 million metric tons (about 2.4 million barrels a day) of oil this year, Vice President Liu Hongbin told reporters in Beijing yesterday. The company processed 2.15 million barrels a day of oil last year. The latest projection is also higher than a March forecast for refining volume to reach 2.25 million barrels a day in 2007, Bloomberg News said.
China, the world's largest energy user after the United States, has had fuel shortages since the August summer consumption peak. The Chinese government unexpectedly raised fuel prices by as much as 10 percent effective November 1 in what the National Development and Reform Commission called an "urgent step" to boost market supplies.
China controls fuel prices to limit their impact on inflation. Domestic refineries have been losing money from fuel sales since July after crude oil costs soared. Benchmark crude prices reached a record US$98.62 a barrel last week.
China National Petroleum Corp and China Petrochemical Corp, the nation's two biggest refiners, will delay maintenance of oil-processing plants to boost fuel output and ease shortages, the commission, China's top economic planner, said on November 6.