Sinopec is planning a one-month regular maintenance at a 160,000 barrel-per-day crude unit operated at its Qilu plant in the summer of 2012, a company official said. That will trim the total crude throughput at the Qilu refinery by about 400,000 tons, or about 4%, to 10.1 million tons for next year, or 202,000 bpd, the official said.

Qilu, in eastern Shandong province, has a total crude refining capacity of 220,000 bpd, one of the country's regular processors of high-sulfur, or sour crude.

For December, the plant will switch off a 1.4 million ton-per-year coking unit for two weeks to make regular repairs, the official said.