Wedoany.com Report-Dec 17, China's refinery throughput in November recorded its first rise in eight months, official data showed on Monday, as Beijing's economic stimulus measures began to underpin manufacturing activity and oil demand.

Refiners processed 58.51 million metric tons of crude oil last month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, equivalent to 14.24 million barrels per day (bpd).

That marked a yearly increase of 0.2%, snapping a series of consecutive declines since April. It was also up from October's 14.02 million bpd.

"A series of stimulus packages from Beijing helped to expand industrial activity and infrastructure construction, supporting diesel demand," said Ye Lin, a Beijing-based analyst at Rystad Energy.

As a result, operating rates among many independent refiners also improved, she added.

Data released on Monday showed that China's industrial output growth accelerated slightly in November, in line with previous reports that showed expansion in manufacturing and services activity in the world's second-largest economy.

The country's newest refiner Yulong Petrochemical was operating its 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude unit around 90% in November, up from around 60-70% in late September when it came online, trade sources said last month.

Operating rates for small-to-medium refiners stabilised in recent weeks, following better seasonal demand, after they had previously cut run rates due to sluggish margins, a survey by local consultancy JLC showed.

Some refiners also received additional quotas for crude oil importsin November, which enabled them to replenish their feedstock to ramp up production.

Calculations from the statistics bureau's figure released for November of last year, at 59.53 million tons, indicate that throughput this November should have contracted 1.7%, which suggests that the agency has revised down the year-ago figures.

For the first 11 months of the year, the statistics bureau's data showed throughput was 649.10 million tons, or 14.14 million bpd, down 1.8% from a year earlier, the sixth decline for year-to-date volumes.

Rystad's Ye expects refinery throughput will decline for the full year.

China's November domestic crude oil production rose 0.2% year-on-year to 17.25 million metric tons, according to the data.

Year-to-date, crude oil output was 194.92 million metric tons, up 1.9% from a year earlier.

Natural gas production rose 3.1 % in November over a year earlier to 20.7 billion cubic meters (bcm). Output for the year to date was 224.6 bcm, up 6.4%.