China's Sinopec Beihai postpones refinery start-up to late Dec

05 December 2011 06:03  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Sinopec Beihai will postpone the start-up at its 5m tonne/year refinery at Beihai, Guangxi province, to late December as its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) is not ready for operation yet, a company source said on Monday.

The producer originally planned to begin commercial operations at the facility on 18 December, after starting trial runs on 25 September.

Sinopec Beihai will also start up its downstream units, primarily a 1.7m tonne/year FCC, a 2.6m tonne/year gasoil hydrogenation unit, a 1.2m tonne/year delayed coker and a 200,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant, in late December, according to the source.

The company has since April 2010 halted production at its existing 600,000 tonne/year refinery, the source said, adding that it would likely be kept idle after the new 5m tonne/year refinery is started up.

Sinopec Beihai plans to expand the capacity of the new refinery to 10m-12m tonnes/year in the future, the source added.

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By: Jean Zou
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