Chinese Crude Oil Refining Hits An All-Time Record -- July 15, 2019

See this note, about coal. And the graphic at this note, world electricity generation by fuel.

Now this, from Reuters: China -- June, 2019 -- crude oil throughput rises to record on new plants.

• year-over-year, up almost 8%;
• China's crude oil throughput at a record high last month (June, 2019); and, 
• it's being reported day in and day out that the Chinese economy is slowing. Okay.

[To compare, US data at this EIA site:

• it looks like the US might have hit an all-time high of 17.981 million b/d one year ago, August, 2018
• most recent data: first week, July, 2019: 17.438 million b/d]

But let's see if you can guess most recent crude processing volumes for China as reported in that linked Reuters story:

• 3 million b/d
• 13 million b/d
• 23 million b/d
• 35 million b/d

Whatever the number is/was, the rates:

• were supported by the start-up of two major new refineries
• both at 400,000-bpd

I don't know about others, but an increase in crude oil refining by almost 8% year-over-year for an economy like China is not trivial.

By the way, China's crude oil imports increased by 15% year-over-year, also .

China: helping make America great.