PetroChina starts expansion at Hohhot

PetroChina has started to expand its Hohhot refinery in northern Inner Mongolia that would more than triple the plant’s refining capacity to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). China will likely add some 3 million bpd of new refining capacity between 2010 and 2015, industry officials and Chinese media have said, in a new refinery building boom to fuel its robust economic growth. The expansion pace, some half a million bpd on an annual average, does not look huge compared with China’s annual incremental oil demand growth, but some market analysts have argued that China may already have a structural surplus of gasoline and diesel fuel. (August 2, 2010)