No clear date for restart of PetroChina's Sichuan refinery after quake

06-May-13

PetroChina has not yet decided when it will start up its new US$6 bln refinery complex in Southwest China, after local residents expressed safety concerns following an earthquake two weeks ago, as per Reuters. PetroChina's Sichuan Petrochemical Co Ltd was earlier expected to start test runs at its 200,000 bpd refinery around mid-April. That was a delay from an original plan to bring the plant online in December. The 38 billion yuan (US$6.2 bln) investment includes a 800,000 tpa ethylene complex that makes feedstocks and intermediates for petrochemicals. The company would go through "stringent check and approval procedures according to national standards," before deciding on a start-up schedule, it said in a statement published on Friday on sina.com. China's first major refinery in the landlocked southwest was reviewed by central authorities following a deadly earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008 before finally being approved.