The Ningxia refinery, owned by PetroChina, has raised the operation rate of its crude oil processing units to 93%, as of April 1, from 72% last month, the company said in a statement on Friday, as reported by Reuters.
Hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Ningxia refinery processed 943,600 tonnes of crude oil in the first quarter, a drop of 82,000 tonnes from a year-ago period.
China’s oil refineries had lowered crude oil throughput in the past two months as the flu-like outbreak dampened fuel consumption.
Ningxia refinery has an annual crude oil processing capacity of 5 million tonnes.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)