MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Corp’s Jinling refinery in the eastern province of Jiangsu produced its first cargo of low-sulfur marine fuel of 4,200 tons, reported Reuters with reference to the state oil and gas group.
The Sinopec statement did not give further details, but a refinery executive told Reuters the fuel meets the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) emission standards, with sulfur content lower than 0.5 percent.
The plant becomes one of China’s first refineries making marine fuel able to meet the IMO specifications, following Sinopec subsidiaries such as Shanghai Petrochemical Corp and the refinery in Hainan that rolled out pilot productions in small qualities.
IMO will ban ships from using fuel oil with a sulfur content above 0.5 percent, compared with 3.5 percent now, unless they are equipped with exhaust "scrubbers" to clean up sulfur emissions, starting in 2020.
As MRC informed earlier, in September 2018, Sinopec Corp joined a group planning to build an oil refinery in Alberta, an enterprise that would strengthen demand for the Canadian province's heavily discounted crude. Thus, state-owned Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, along with an Alberta indigenous group, China State Construction Engineering Corp and Alberta management company Teedrum, plan to build a refinery to process 167,000 barrels per day of crude into gasoline and other products.
Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001.
MRC