PetroChina, the listed branch of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), has extended the capacity of its Daqing refinery in the Heilongjiang province (northeast China) from 6.5 Mt/year to 10 Mt/year, after a two-year upgrade, which will allow the plant to process 3.5 Mt/year of Russian ESPO Blend crude oil. The upgrade project, which included the revamping of a 1.2 Mt/year hydrocracker and 1.2 Mt/year gasoline and diesel hydrotreating units, required a CNY4.5bn (US$660m) investment.
In June 2020, China’s state-owned refining group Sinopec commissioned a greenfield 200,000 bbl/d refinery in Zhanjiang in the Guangdong province (southern China) worth CNY44bn (US$6.4bn). The refinery complex also includes a 300 kt crude oil terminal and berths that can accommodate vessels with a capacity of 100,000 tonne of refined products. Since early 2019, two other refineries, with a combined capacity of 800,000 bbl/d have been built and commissioned by private companies Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical.