10 million t/a refining project launched.

The ceremony for launching the large refining project in Qingdao was held on the morning of June 22. It is the first new 10 million t/a refining project in China in the 21st century.

The project is jointly funded by Sinopec Co., Ltd., the State Development Investment Corp. of Shandong and Qingdao International Trust and Investment Corp. and also in collaboration with foreign companies.

The project is designed according to the high-level concept of the 21st century and therefore has the features of good scale economics, advanced technology and leading environmental protection. The first phase has a crude oil processing capacity of 10 million t/a and 13 major production units including atmospheric and vacuum distillation, residuum hydro-desulfurization, hydrocracking, catalytic cracking and continuous reforming will be put up. According to the overall project planning, the focus will be on the construction of underground facilities in 2005 and the installation of equipment and process pipelines in 2006. The project is expected to be completed and put on stream in the second half of 2007. At that time 10.0 million tons of imported crude oil will be processed and 7.6 million tons of oil products and 1.0 million tons of light oils for chemical production will be produced a year. The yield of light oils will reach 84.6%. The product quality will reach European III standard and all the environmental indexes will reach the advanced level of the 21st century both at home and abroad. The annual sales revenue will reach more than RMB23.0 billion.

The project will be executed in the world advanced EPC mode. Sinopec will try its best to develop the large oil refining project in Qingdao into a world's first-rate and China's leading high-level refinery of the 21st century. (CCR2004 No. 34)