PetroChina starts refinery expansion

PetroChina Co. Ltd. has started construction of a refinery expansion project in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, in northeast China. The Liaoyang base, which is the principal refining base for Russian crude oil, has a processing capacity of nearly 200,000 barrels a year. In April, China signed an agreement with Russia to purchase about 15 million tons of crude oil every year beginning in 2011. The expansion project will add a hydrocracking unit with an annual capacity of 1 million tons per year (tpy), a 2 million tpy hydrorefining unit and a 30,000 tpy sulfur removal and recovery unit, as well as other support facilities. The entire project, which will be completed prior to 2010, will produce gasoline, diesel fuel and petrochemicals. The cost of the expansion project was not disclosed. (July 17, 2009)