Sinopec, BASF to expand joint venture

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and Germany’s BASF AG agreed in July to expand their 50-50 joint venture project in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The expansion, which will require an investment of US$500 million, will include raising the cracker capacity by 25% and extending the downstream capacities of the facilities. The expansion will be completed in 2009. The Nanjing project, which is operated by BASF-YPC Co., is one of the largest Sino-foreign petrochemical joint ventures in China with an initial investment of US$2.9 billion. Commercial production started in June 2005, with an annual capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of petrochemicals, including ethylene. (July 11, 2006)