China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has completed building an integrated refining and petrochemical complex in eastern China, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.
The 21 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) project, built on the Daxie Island of eastern coastal city Ningbo, Zhejiang province, includes what CNOOC calls the country's largest facility that directly converts heavy oil into olefins.
A core unit brought onstream can produce 1.2 million metric tons per year of polymer-grade ethylene and propylene, basic feedstocks for beverage bottles, food packaging and synthetic fibre clothing, the report said.
Following the startup, the plant's olefins capacity will reach 1.8 million tons per year, it said, without giving any details on the expanded refinery at the same site.
Reuters reported in March that the complex included an upgrade that expands crude processing capacity at the Daxie plant by 50% to 240,000 barrels per day, as a smaller crude unit was mothballed.
CNOOC is the parent of listed CNOOC Ltd.
($1 = 7.18 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reuters)