Report: China planning expansion of oil refineries

China is planning a major expansion of its oil refineries to help reduce reliance on imports and keep up with demand, a state-run newspaper reported over the weekend.

Plans call for the country to have 31 refineries by 2015, each with a capacity to process 10 million tons of crude oil a year (220,000 barrels a day), the Economic Observer reported. At the end of last year China had only nine facilities with similar capacity.
The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main planning agency, also expects by 2015 to have 30 ethylene factories, each with an annual output of 1 million tons a year, the report said, citing unnamed officials.

China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, is planning about 20 refineries able to process 10 million tons of crude oil a year, it said. Some would be new but most would involve less costly expansions of existing refineries.

PetroChina, China’s biggest oil conglomerate, is expected to build at least 10 refineries of the same size, the report said.

An official at Sinopec’s investor relations department, who declined to give his name, said he could not immediately confirm the report because he needed to check with other departments. Calls to the office of the spokesman for PetroChina rang unanswered.

International Herald Tribune