Recovering domestic demand for gasoline and aviation fuel as more people traveled following the scrapping of COVID-19 controls also supported refinery production.

Crude throughput in the January-February period reached 116.07 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, equivalent to 14.36 million barrels per day (bpd).

State-run refiners were encouraged to process more partly to capture profits in exporting refined products, following the government’s release of a larger set of quotas that has led to a 74% surge in refined oil product exports in the January-February period.