Ethylene expansion at Lanzhou

PetroChina has initiated a 600,000 tpa ethylene expansion project at its Lanzhou Petrochemical Company in northwest China, at an investment outlay of of 6.296 billion yuan ($US760.6 million). Approval for the project was received in November 2003.The project will comprise six sets of chemical production installations for the production of ethylene, high-pressure polyethylene, high density polyethylene and polypropylene, and more than 10 sets of supporting devices. Scheduled for completion by the end of 2006, the project is expected to increase sales by 5.8 billion yuan and profits by 800 million yuan annually for Lanzhou Petrochemical. This is a major project in China's Western Development Drive, and is also the largest ethylene project invested in by PetroChina since its listing.