Beijing-based Yanshan oil refinery, a regular processor of Russian crude, plans to step up September crude throughput from August due to strong local demand, a company source said.

The refinery, a unit of Asia's top refiner Sinopec Corp, is expected to receive by rail 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes of Russian crude next month, steady from August.

"September runs could be pushed to as high as 670,000 tonnes," said the source, adding that August rates would be around 620,000 tonnes.

At 670,000 tonnes, or 167,500 barrels per day (bpd), the run rate would represent 95 per cent of the refinery's 175,000 bpd crude run capacity.

Since January, the refinery has been processing 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes every month of Russian crude, or 10 percent of its crude supply to shift away from Daqing, China's flagship crude, where production has been declining.

Russian state railways said on Wednesday China was ready to pay transportation fees for Yukos if the Russian oil major was unable to pay them itself because of its frozen bank accounts.

Yukos is expected to send to China by rail 6.4 million tonnes of crude this year.-Reuters