Chinas downstream petroleum industry decreased refinery throughput and increased petrochemical production in 1994, compared to 1993 data.
A report titled China Petroleum Industry 94, issued by China Petroleum Newsletter, a publication of China Petroleum Information Institute, summarized Chinas refined products and petrochemical production figures for 1994. The report also listed important construction projects at Chinas downstream plants.
Refined products
Chinese refineries processed 127 million tons (about 2.55 million b/d) of crude oil in 1994. This quantity represents a decrease of 1 million tons compared to 1993. Of the crude processed, China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) refined 2.21 million b/d, or almost 87%.
Fig. 1 (71809 bytes) shows a map of Chinas refineries.
China produced 66.04 million tons (1.62 million b/d) of four main refined products (gasoline, kerosine, diesel, and lube oil). Table 1 (11635 bytes) lists Chinas output of each of these products, along with import and export quantities.
Major refinery construction projects completed by Sinopec in 1994 included:
- Two 2.5 million ton/ year (about 50,000 b/d) atmospheric and vacuum distillation units (one each at Tianjin Petrochemical Corp. and Yangzi Petrochemical Corp.)
- Four coking units, with a combined capacity of 2.8 million tons/year (about 47,000 b/d), constructed at Jinxi Petrochemical Corp., Gaoqiao Petrochemical Corp., Guangzhou Petrochemical Corp., and Wuhan Petrochemical Corp.
- A 1 million ton/year hydrocracker at Liaoning Petrochemical Corp.
- An 860,000 ton/year heavy oil fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at Jinshan Petrochemical Corp.
Plans include the future construction of three heavy oil FCC units, increasing the capacity of Jinling Petrochemical Corp.s coker, and increasing the capacity of the lube units at Dalian, Fushun, and Gaoqiao.
Petrochemicals
Chinas ethylene production totaled 2.21 million tons in 1994, a 4% increase over 1993 output. Fig. 2 (73195 bytes) shows the countrys historical ethylene output.
In 1994, Chinas petrochemical plants also produced:
- 2.45 million tons of plastics (a 7.3% increase over 1993 production)
- 507,000 tons of synthetic fibers (a 12.2% increase over 1993)
- 3.31 million tons ammonia (a 4.3% increase)
- 5.24 million tons urea (a 5.5% increase).
In 1994, Yanshan Petrochemical Corp. completed expansion of its ethylene unit to 450,000 tons/year from 300,000 tons/year. At Anqing, acrylic fiber and acrylonitrile units were completed.
Other successful completions included 300,000 ton/year ethylene units at Maoming and Liaoning, ethylene projects at Tianjin and Guangzhou, and a fertilizer project at Jiujiang.
In addition, three 300,000 ton/year ethylene plants were revamped in 1994: at Daqing, Yangzi, and Shandong.
Despite these capacity additions and expansions, serious petrochemical shortages occurred in 1994.
Imports of plastics and plastic products totaled 6.83 million tons in 1994, and exports totaled 1.86 million tons. Chinas net imports of plastics were 4.97 million tons. China Petroleum Newsletter estimates the value of these imports to be $3.51 billion (U.S.).
Synthetic rubber imports totaled 251,000 tons in 1994. Exports of 26,000 tons left net imports of 225,000 tons, valued at $230 million.
Imports of synthetic fibers totaled 1.21 million tons, and exports, 125,000 tons. Net imports of 1.09 million tons were valued at $1.51 billion. n Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
