Sinopec’s Luoyang unit to produce Euro 3 standard diesel fuel

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s Luoyang unit, a major Sinopec refinery in central China, plans to expand its refining capacity by 25% to 200,800 barrels a day by August to meet robust local demand, a senior executive said. The planned expansion includes adding a 2.6-million-ton-a-year diesel hydrotreater which will ensure that its diesel fuel output meets Euro 3 emission standards when it becomes operational in October, said Wei Wenbo, party secretary of the Henan-based refinery. Luoyang’s crude throughput capacity was already lifted by a third in mid-2009, when it added several new units to produce Euro 3 standard gasoline. The refinery plans to boost crude throughput by 8.6% to 7.7 million metric tons, from 7.09 million metric tons, of crude oil this year. (March 11, 2010)