Asia’s Top Refiner Slashes Production As Virus Wrecks Demand

The spread of the coronavirus and its impact on fuel demand amid travel restrictions and thousands of canceled flights has already had analysts saying that refiners in China and throughout Asia would resort to reducing refinery runs because of depressed demand.  China’s independent refiners were expected to cut refinery throughput more significantly because they are not allowed to export fuels, unlike the state-held corporations. Independent refiners in China’s Shandong province in the east have already cut refinery runs by as much as 30-50 percent and are now said to operate at less than half of their refining capacity, according to Reuters’ sources. Wood Mackenzie estimates that China’s oil demand will be reduced by 250,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2020. The sudden demand shock from the coronavirus will make OPEC and Russia’s efforts to balance the market and support oil prices even more difficult...MORE