PetroChina to import record oil levels

By Wang Ying  |   2008-6-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

PETROCHINA Co, the nation's biggest oil producer, may import record volumes of oil products this year and will extend a halt in exports to increase domestic supplies of gasoline and diesel, Bloomberg News reported.

PetroChina will run its refineries at full capacity and shorten maintenance periods to boost production, parent China National Petroleum Corp said. The company will increase crude oil processing volume by 6 percent this month, it said.

China ordered its oil producers to end a shortage amid rising demand during summer and from the reconstruction work after the Sichuan earthquake. The government increased gasoline and diesel prices by at least 17 percent last week to help refiners cover losses as global crude prices continued to rise.

"Although the recent fuel price increase has eased the current shortage to some extent, oil-products supplies are not satisfactory because there is still a big gap between domestic prices and international levels," CNPC said in the statement. "There is still room to further raise domestic prices."

PetroChina plans to increase third-quarter crude processing volume by 880,000 tons and boost fuel output by 580,000 tons from a year earlier, CNPC said.

CNPC aims to supply 1.25 million tons of crude to privately held refineries and buy back about 500,000 tons of fuel products on a monthly basis in the next quarter, it said.