OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2012. China’s top refiner, Sinopec Corp, will lift less crude from top exporter Saudi Arabia in August, an industry source said, as it extends cuts for a second straight month.

Typically, oil demand dips in the second quarter in a transition from heating usage to summer gasoline demand in the Northern Hemisphere and many Asian and European refiners carry out planned maintenance. Consumption revives from July as homes and offices burn more energy to run air conditioners.

The cut in imports from Saudi Arabia in August will be less than July, the industry source said, without giving details on the volumes. Imports will fall due to refinery maintenance, he said, declining to be identified because he was not authorised to talk to media.

Tianjin Petrochemical Corp, a unit of Sinopec, plans to shut its 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude processing facility and a 1 million tonne per year (tpy) ethylene complex from mid-August until the end of September.

Asia’s top refiner, which takes in 80 percent of China’s Saudi crude imports, is already cutting production in July for the second month as inventories bulged and margins fell due to slowing demand.

The other two Chinese Saudi crude buyers will lift full contract volumes for August, sources at the refineries told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia will supply full contracted volumes of crude to other Asian term buyers in August, despite an unexpected increase in the official selling price (OSP) this month.

Saudi Arabia has raised the August official selling price (OSP) for its light crude for Asia for July, state run oil firm Saudi Aramco said.

Sources told Reuters than Saudi suppliers will be meeting the term commitments for buyers in Japanand South Korea.