PetroChina's Dushanzi refinery nears completion

March 27, 2008
China National Petroleum Corp. said the Dushanzi refinery, operated by subsidiary PetroChina Co. Ltd. as part of a larger petrochemical facility, will begin trial operations in August.

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Mar. 27 -- China National Petroleum Corp. said the Dushanzi refinery, operated by subsidiary PetroChina Co. Ltd. as part of a larger petrochemical facility, will begin trial operations in August.

When construction is complete, the plant will be China's largest refinery and petrochemical complex, with a capacity to process 10 million tonnes/year of oil and 1 million typ of ethylene products.

Most of the oil for the facility will be imported through the 1,000-km cross-border pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan, China's first major land oil import route.

The 10 million tpy pipeline originates at Atasu in west Kazakhstan, enters China at Alashankou port on the Sino-Kazakhstan border, and terminates at the Dushanzi refinery (OGJ, Aug. 7, 2006, Newsletter).

Last September, KuatAmlonMunai, a Chinese-Kazakh joint venture, commissioned a 73-km oil pipeline from Konys field in Kazakhstan to Kumkol. It will deliver as much as 2,000 cu m/day of oil from Konys field to the Atasu-Alashankou export pipeline (OGJ, Sept. 17, 2007, Newsletter).

CNPC produced 23.04 million tonnes of oil in the January-February period, about 1.84% higher than the same period in 2007, while its refinery runs, at 22.69 million tonnes, were 7.5% higher than a year earlier.

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].