BEIJING (Reuters) -- Sinopec Corp
plans to start up a major petrochemical complex in eastern China"s
Zhejiang province by the end of the first quarter of 2010 at the
earliest, industry officials said on Tuesday, largely in line with the
original schedule.
The 1-million-tonne-per-year (tpy)
ethylene complex, in Zhenhai, Ningbo city, will be the fourth major
ethylene project to come on line since this year as China moves to reduce its dependence on imported petrochemicals.
Sinopec, Asia"s largest refiner and China"s biggest maker of
ethylene
-- a building block for petrochemical products from plastics to
synthetic rubber -- aims to eventually double the Zhenhai complex"s
capacity to 2 million tpy, making it one of the world"s biggest.
"Construction will be completed by the end of the year. Tentatively,
the schedule for startup will be the end of the first quarter or early
in the second quarter," said an industry source familiar with the
project, which cost close to 25 billion yuan ($3.66 billion).
The petrochemical plant is linked with a refinery in Zhenhai, the
country"s biggest with a primary crude run capacity of 440,000 barrels
per day.
So far this year, China has launched two
ethylene
plants, one in northwest Xinjiang region and another in southeast
Fujian province, and is set bring a third on line in the northern port
of Tianjin by the end of December. The three plants have a combined
capacity of 2.8 million tpy.
The building wave, led by Sinopec and PetroChina, follows a string of crackers brought on line in 2005.
