OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2012. China's daily refinery crude throughput hit a record of 9.24 milllion barrels in December, up 4 percent on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, as new refining facilities came on line.

China processed 39.23 million tonnes of crude oil last month, or equivalent to about 9.24 million bpd, exceeding the previous record posted in November at 9.22 million bpd.

The peak runs were in line with comments from China's dominant refiners Sinopec Corp and PetroChina about their plants running at full rates to boost production as diesel shortages persisted in some regions.

Refiners also brought on line three new crude refining facilities at south China's Beihai, north China's Ningxia and central China's Hunan, with a combined processing capacity of about 300,000 bpd during the last few months of 2011.