The Chinese government has given the nod of approval for construction of a joint venture refinery by China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec Group) and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. With total investment estimated at US$8 billion, the project is likely to be the largest JV petrochem project by investment in China, exceeding the US$4.3 billion petrochemical complex by CNOOC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Most of the crude to be processed is likely to be high-sulfur crude imported from Kuwait. KPC is estimated to pool in US$5 billion in the project that will mark Kuwait's entry into this sector in China.
Construction for the refinery with an expected annual processing capacity of around 15 million tons of crude (300,000 bpd) is likely to start late this year or early next year. Construction is expected to be completed by 2010, and is likely to ease the shortage of oil products in Guangdong, a strong economic growth region in China, which consumes about 20 million tons of oil products pa.
27-Jul-06 
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