According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) 's monthly report in July, Chinese refinery operation rate rose year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, and crude oil processing volume hit a record high in June. In the US, refinery operation rate fell sharply. As American crude processing volume fell to a 27-year low, China overtook the US in the second quarter, becoming the world's largest refining centre.

China was the first country in the world to control the epidemic and fully resume production. In the first half of the year, China's domestic economy first fell and then rose, and domestic demand recovered steadily. In addition to the low crude oil price, oil refineries were profitable and highly motivated.

At the same time, however, it should be noted that the domestic excess refining capacity is getting heavier, and the refining and chemical industry as a whole is "large but not strong". In the first half of this year, profits of petrochemical industry fell by nearly 60% in China. Refining and chemical enterprises are faced with many challenges brought by the continuous release of advanced production capacity and the increasingly intensified domestic competition.

Chinese oil refining industry requires more quality improvement in the future. Dai Jiaquan, director of the Petroleum Market Research Institute of the China National Institute of Petroleum Economics and Technology, said that the consumption of refined oil products was about to peak, and that there was no sense of expansion in the general sense. For refining and chemical enterprises, the more economical and efficient choice is to speed up the transformation from pursuing scale to improving quality and efficiency, that is, to strictly control the increment, make the stock do the best, continuously reduce the cost and make the increment in the product efficiency ability.