Commercial operations at oil refining and petrochemical complex in Zhanjiang are expected to start at the end of July, Sinopec Corp spokesperson said.
Zhanjiang refinery is capable of processing 200,000 bpd of crude oil. Up to 800,000 tonnes per year of ethylene will be produced by the petrochemical plant. The project is situated in southern China’s Guangdong province with first phase investment of $5.59 billion (40 billion yuan).
Sinopec said first crude oil cargo of 128,900 tonnes received by the refinery from a very large crude carrier that arrived at the plant’s berth in early May. Since the start up of the similar-sized Qingdao refinery on China’s east coast in 2009, the Zhanjiang refinery is Sinopec’s first capacity addition.
Commercial crude oil storage tanks in Zhanjiang also owned by Sinopec Corp. To shore up Guangdong province economy, the government aims to set up an oil refining and petrochemical industry base there. Germany’s BASF is also constructing an integrated petrochemical project in Zhanjiang.
