China plans $3-billion refinery expansion

China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, plans to spend $3-billion (U.S.) on refinery units able to process cheaper, lower-quality Middle East crude oil to cut the nation’s annual import bill by as much as 20 per cent.

The investments over the next two years will boost the profit on each barrel processed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, and PetroChina Co. The expansion may help ease a global shortage of capacity to handle oil from Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 exporter, and other producers of so-called heavy, sour oil that’s high in sulphur