Sinopec's oil refining capacity has seen around 10 percent year-on-year growth in the past few years, said Chen Yaohuan, deputy director of the company's refining business. Sinopec processed 228 million tons of crude in 2009.

The company has built a cluster of oil refineries in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Sea Rim area. It now has 35 oil refineries, with an average production capacity of 6.85 million tons per year, said Chen.

The company's largest oil refinery, Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has an annual capacity of 20 million tons. It is expected to add another 3 million tons of refining capacity.

Sinopec also invested 11 billion yuan in upgrading oil products between 2005 and 2009. At present all the gasoline and diesel produced by the company meets or is higher than China III Standards, which are equal to Euro III standards.

The company is now supplying oil products with China IV standards, which are equivalent to Euro IV standards, in Beijing and Shanghai. Products meeting the new standards will also hit the market in Guangzhou before the Asian Games.

The company's three refineries - Yanshan Petrochemical Co in Beijing, Gaoqiao Petrochemical Co in Shanghai, and Wuhan Petrochemical in Hubei province - are now capable of manufacturing oil products meeting Euro V standards.

To supply more green products is part of Sinopec's strategy "in developing a low-carbon economy and achieving sustainable development", said Huang Wensheng, spokesman of Sinopec.

China, the world's second-largest energy consumer, will increase its annual oil-refining capacity by 50 percent between 2010 and 2015 to meet rising domestic demand, Sinopec said earlier.

Annual oil refining capacity is expected to reach 507.5 million tons by the end of 2010, up 6.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Sinopec. That figure will increase to 750 million tons by the end of 2015, it said.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/09/2010 page13)