Published: April 10, 2017 |

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Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec Group is planning to invest CNY200bn ($29.05bn) to upgrade its four main oil refineries in the country through 2020.

The investment is intended to help the firm produce higher-quality fuels at the four refineries which are located in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Zhenhai on the east coast, and Maoming-Zhanjiang in southern Guangdong province.

Sinopec said that the upgrade work is expected to increase the refineries’ combined annual processing capacity by 30 percent to 130 million tons of crude oil a year, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

As part of the investment plan, the refineries will also be installed with new equipment to increase production ethylene capacity from 5 million tons to 9 million tons per year.

Sinopec Chairman Wang Yupu was quoted by Reuters as saying in a statement: “It’s a strategic move that fits the global industrial trend for clustered and scaled growth and helps transform China’s petrochemical products to medium and high quality.”

The state-run refining and petrochemical giant expects the upgrades to allow it to more efficiently operate the four plants and generate revenue of CNY800bn ($116.1bn) by 2020.

The firm has already commenced upgrade work at the greenfield oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Maoming-Zhanjiang.

Upon completion of the work, the refinery will have capacity to produce gasoline and aviation fuel at the expense of diesel.

In 2015, Sinopec announced the completion of $1bn expansion program at a refinery located in Jiangxi province in eastern China. The upgrade project involved addition of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude unit.

Source: (March 3, 2017) Energy Business Review

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