China’s Qilu PC expands refinery, maintains cracker capacity

GUANGZHOU (ICIS news)--Sinopec subsidiary Qilu Petrochemical has expanded its refining capacity to 15m tonnes/year from 10.5m tonnes/year with the start-up of its new 8m tonne/year refinery on 30 March, a company source said on Thursday.

The company's 3.5m tonne/year aging refinery was shut permanently upon the start-up of the new refinery at Zibo in Shandong province, the source added.

The company’s cracker capacity would remain at 800,000 tonnes/year, and capacities of the downstream polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) units would also be unchanged, at 400,000 tonnes/year and 70,000 tonnes/year, respectively, the source said.

The newly-added refinery would undergo two-three months’ trial operations before running at full load, the source added.

Construction of the new refinery, which started in February 2009, was completed in January, according to the source.

The company mainly processes sour crude, including domestic Shengli crude and those imported from the Middle East, the source added.

Market sources said that China was facing excess refining capacity and refineries were taking measures including exporting refined oil and cutting operating rates to curb the rise in capacity.