Sinopec to invest in gas-to-oil facility

China Petroleum  Chemical Group Corp. (Sinopec), the country’s largest refiner, is planning to invest RMB4.3 billion(US$544.23 million) to construct a plant in the southwest city of Chongqing, converting natural gas into petroleum product equivalents, China Business News reported. The facility, the first of its kind in the country, is expected to start operations by 2008, producing two million tons of fuel annually, the newspaper reported. In June, Sinopec reported a natural gas find in the northeast of Sichuan Province near Chongqing, with reserves of about 500 billion cubic meters. (September 26, 2006)