PetroChina Co may build new
refinery in Pearl River Delta
PetroChina Co ,
Asia's most profitable
company, and Kuwait may build a planned joint
venture oil
refinery in southern China's Pearl River Delta area,
Guangdong Province Executive Vice Governor Zhong Yangsheng said.
The provincial government will soon reveal the location of the
refinery, Zhong told reporters at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan on
Saturday. He declined to provide further details. The Pearl River Delta
region southwest of Hong Kong accounts for about a third of China's
exports.
China, the world's largest oil consumer after the US, is encouraging
local oil companies to expand refining
capacity to meet its soaring
demand for energy.
China's oil consumption this year may rise 5.5 percent according to the
International Energy Agency forecast on April 12.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah visited Guangdong and
met with PetroChina officials to talk about the refinery project last
December.
Persian Gulf oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United
Arab Emirates are investing in Asian oil-consuming countries, seeking
to tie their oil production with demand in nations such as China, South
Korea and Taiwan.
The refinery planned by Kuwait will have the capacity to process up to
400,000 barrels a day of crude oil, the state-run Kuwait News Agency
reported on Dec. 5, citing al-Sabah.
Kuwait, the world's fourth-largest holder of oil reserves, will supply
the crude, the report said.
China wants to raise its oil refining capacity by 25 percent in the
next five years to meet rising demand for motor fuels and chemical raw
materials.
It may increase its crude oil processing capacity to 355 million tonnes
by 2010 from 285 million tonnes this year, the National Development and
Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planning agency, said on
its Web site on March 16.