Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) PetroChina is the biggest oil company in the People's Republic and it is currently planning investments up to September 2007 in order to boost its refining capacity in the western-most province of Xinjiang, said Liu Mingrong, director of Dushanzi Petrochemical. Estimated cost: 26.2 billion yuan.
"The project is built mainly to process oil imported from Kazakhstan," Mr Liu said, but it is also expected to start producing ethylene as early as the third quarter of 2008. Ethylene is used in making plastics, food wrapping and electrical insulation.
Mr Liu said PetroChina plans to increase refining capacity at the Dushanzi Petrochemical in Xinjiang to 10 million tonnes a year by 2008 from its current level of six million.
The project will produce 1.2 million tonnes of ethylene annually up from 220,000 tonnes now.
According to PetroChina's 2004 report ethylene production rose 1.5 per cent to 1.85 million tonnes last year over the previous.
PetroChina drills for gas and oil at home but is also exploring abroad to compensate for the depletion of its biggest and oldest oil field in Daqing which started production back in 1959.
The failure of China's oil companies to match increased demand from economic expansion sent imports soaring by 35 per cent last year.
PetroChina's crude oil production rose a mere 0.4 per cent to 777.9 million barrels, compared with a 14 per cent upsurge in China's demand over the same period. Natural gas output rose instead 21 per cent to 839.4 billion cubic feet over the same period.
Production from Daqing fell to 46.4 million tonnes last year from 48.4 million tonnes in 2003.
Output from Heilongjiang, which accounts for 50 per cent of PetroChina's production and 33 per cent of the nation's total, is being cut to prolong Daqing's life.
