PetroChina, Qatar Petroleum, Shell to build refinery in Taizhou

Aug. 6, 2009 (China Knowledge) -  PetroChina<601857><0857><PTR>, the country's largest oil producer, Qatar Petroleum International, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have decided to build their planned US$80 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Taizhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, sources reported on Tuesday, citing Taizhou government officials as saying.

The planning work has been finished, a preliminary environment assessment has been carried out, and the project has been submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, for approval, according to the report.

The first phase of the project will be to build a refinery that can process 20 million metric tons of crude oil annually and produce 1.2 million tons of ethylene per year and to build a 300,000-ton crude oil dock on Dachen Island.

The complex will be 51% held by PetroChina and 24.5% each by Shell and Qatar Petroleum.

In June last year, the three parties signed a letter of intent on building the refining and petrochemical complex and setting up a sales unit in China.