A major Sino-Kuwaiti oil refinery project, to be jointly funded
by the China National Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) and
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), has been approved by China's
industrial watchdog.
The joint venture with an estimated investment of US$5 billion
in south China's Guangdong Province will become China's largest
foreign-invested petrochemical project, overtaking the
US$4.3-billion Nanhai Petrochemical Project, a joint venture of
China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Shell
Petrochemical.
The joint venture will include an oil refinery with an annual
production capacity of 15 million tons and an ethylene plant with
an annual capacity of 1 million tons, Shanghai Securities
News quoted sources of the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC), the industrial watchdog, as saying.
According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by
Kuwait and China in late 2005, KPC will provide most investment for
the project, which is scheduled to go into operation by the year
2010.
It would make Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, a major
international petrochemical production base with an annual oil
refining capacity of 30 million tons and an annual output of 2
million tons of ethylene by 2010.
The MOU on the project was signed in 2005. However, the project
was delayed due to Kuwaiti cabinet reshuffle.
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2006)
