China's oil giant twins, Sinopec Group and CNPC, have each proposed building a major refinery and petrochemical complex in a new northern Chinese port, an industry newspaper said yesterday.
Both planned to build separate 200,000 barrels per day refineries and one million tonne per year ethylene complexes in Caofeidian, a massive port and industrial zone near Beijing recently converted from an isolated sand pit. Such integrated complexes can easily cost US$5 billion each to build.
The plans, both tie-ins with the government of Hebei province, are expected to be submitted to China's economic planning agency for approval soon, the China Chemical Industry News reported, without giving a timeframe for the plans. A terminal to receive 300,000 tonne vessels built by Sinopec was slated for completion soon, the paper said.
PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC, announced in July the discovery of Jidong Nanpu oilfield, near Caofeidian, with proven oil reserves of 3.2 billion barrels, the country's largest find in decades. That discovery helped solidify the company's plan to build a refinery, according to the report. Sinopec Group is the parent of Asia's largest refiner, Sinopec Corp.