Asia
• Chinese independent refineries, known as “teapot” refiners, who are responsible for the surge in the country’s oil imports, processed crude oil at 58.63 percent of capacity in the week through April 28, according to data by an industry researcher released on April 28. Teapots processed crude at 58.11 percent capacity the previous week, according to data from Shandong-based industry researcher Sci99. The operating rate at the independent refineries was at the highest rate of 68.13 percent on Dec. 9, Sci99 data showed.
• China’s commercial crude inventories fell by 2.21 percent in March from February, according to state news agency Xinhua’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals newsletter. Oil product stockpiles also fell by 0.91 percent month-on-month in March, the newsletter published on April 28 showed.
• Three Chinese oil giants reported last week an improvement in their financial statements on the back of the improvement in oil prices. PetroChina Co., the country’s largest oil producer, saw its first-quarter earnings turning into profit even as its total output fell by 6.3 percent from a year ago. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the refining giant known as Sinopec, reported that its net income more than doubled while its production dropped 2.4 percent. CNOOC Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil and gas explorer, posted a 56 percent increase in its revenues in the first three months of the year on a rebound in crude prices that countered the slide in its production.
North America
• Oil drillers in the US added nine rigs last week targeting crude, bringing the total amount of oil rigs to 697, according to Baker Hughes Inc. data issued on April 28. The number of working rigs has more than doubled from a 2016 low of 316 in May and is up more than 30 percent so far this year. Shale oil producers in Texas’s Eagle Ford and Permian basins led the weekly expansion with a combined seven rigs put to work.
• Energy Information Administration (EIA) monthly data issued on April 28 show February crude production at 9.03 million barrels a day versus 9.02 million based on the average of weekly estimates that the EIA publishes every week.
• US crude imports from OPEC member countries decreased to a four-month low of 3.18 million bpd in February from 3.58 million in January, according to the EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly report issued on April 28.

Source: Arab News