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Latest News March 12, 2006
NEWS HEADER HERE
Foreign investors eyeing oil business in China
BEIJING, March 24 -- Foreign investors are eyeing
more opportunities as China's demand for oil refining and petrochemicals
increases.
March 01, 2006
NEWS HEADER HERE
Major oil reserves discovered in Bohai
BEIJING, March 20 -- China's top oil producing and offshore oil
companies simultaneously unveiled major discoveries Monday.
PetroChina announced it had discovered a "very rich" oil
field at Bohai Bay the biggest in China in the past decade while
CNOOC said it has an "exciting find", also in Bohai Bay.
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News Center
Foreign investors eyeing oil business in China
BEIJING, March 24 -- Foreign investors are eyeing more opportunities
as China's demand for oil refining and petrochemicals increases.
According to a think-tank affiliated to China National Petroleum
Corp (CNPC), China's oil demand will hit 455 million tons while
the country's total refining capacity will surpass 400 million tons
by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period, set from 2006 to 2010.
"From this year to 2010, the average annual oil demand of China
will grow at 6.5 percent per year. One forecast shows demand reaching
455 million tons in 2010," Gong Jinshuang, a veteran researcher
at the Economic and Technology Research Institute of CNPC, China's
largest oil and gas producer, said on Friday.
According to a national industrial deployment plan, there will be
many refineries and ethylene crackers on stream by 2010 and China
will witness 18 million tons of ethylene produced by 2010.
The country's refineries will run at 90 to 95 percent capacity by
2010, Gong said. Ethylene output of China was 9.41 million tons
last year, up 24.5 percent year-on-year.
To seize opportunities arising from the downstream sector of the
oil industry, not only State-owned giants, but also foreign investors
are gearing for more investment.
Mustafa Al-Sahan, general manager in charge of China investment
at Sabic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, told China Daily that his firm plans
to invest $5 billion to set up an integrated refining and petrochemical
project in Dalian, Northeast China.
The industrial complex is expected to include a 10-million-ton refinery,
a one-million-ton ethylene cracker and an 800,000-ton aromatics
plant, according to the blueprint.
Al-Sahan said the project will be a joint venture formed by several
parties, holding equal stakes. So far, there are already two parties
involved, Sabic and a private Chinese company.
Sabic is looking for another State-owed energy giant to join, Al-Sahan
added.
The project is still subject to approval by the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.
Sabic has invested in a petrochemicals plant in Tianjin, in partnership
with Sinopec, Asia's top refiner.
The Tianjian project has been given the green light by the NDRC
and is expected to be on stream by the fourth quarter of next year,
the Sabic chief for the investment in China said.
CNPC and Sinopec are either planning or expanding their refining
and petrochemical projects, such as in Sichuan, Fujian provinces
and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, to better meet the country's
future fuel and industrial demand. China now is the world's fastest
growing major oil market
Al-Sahan said the downstream segment of the Chinese oil industry
has good potential because of the robust future demand.
He said Sabic will not produce gasoline, which is oversupplied in
the market, but oil and petrochemicals that are in big demand.
(Source: China Daily)
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