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CNOOC starts Huizhou refinery, eyes 70-80% runs

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-20 15:35

Offshore oil firm CNOOC's first major refinery in southern China starts pumping crude into its 240,000 barrel-per-day processing unit on Friday, and expects to be running at 70-80 percent of capacity from May, company officials said on Friday.

Related readings:  CNOOC starts production at offshore gas field  CNOOC to raise $11.7b in debt financing  CNOOC to invest 300b yuan in Guangdong  CNOOC starts building chemical complex in Hainan CNOOC refinery to start operation later this month

It takes roughly another one-and-half months to start up all its 16 processing facilities, before the new refinery can enter normal operations, they said.

The start-up of the the plant, designed to process Chinese offshore crude Penglai 19-3 from the Bohai Sea, came after several delays and amid slowing Chinese fuel demand.

"We are not optimistic about domestic fuel demand. So a ratio of 70-80 percent of operations might be a realistic target," said one official, adding that the average operations at main Chinese refineries should be near 90 percent.

China's major refiners will add nearly 1 million bpd of new capacity by the end of this year at six plants, though more than half of them will start up in the second half.

China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, is facing demand contractions as shrinking exports hit factories and the transportation sector. Refiners have in recent months been forced to sharply raise diesel exports to trim brimming stocks.