News Post
BP drops plan to invest in China’s Qinzhou refinery
BP dropped plans to invest in a refinery in China and “dismantled” a team assigned to the
project late last month, said the International Energy Agency.
BP had considered investing in the 200,000 bpd Qinzhou plant operated by PetroChina, according to the IEA, an energy adviser to developed nations. The
refinery in the southern province of Guangxi started operations in 2010 and is currently being upgraded to handle a wider range of
feedstock, it said in its monthly Oil Market Report.
David Nicholas, a BP spokesman in London, declined to comment on the report.
Chinese and international oil companies are reconsidering their
refinery-investment plans as the Asian nation’s oil consumption expanded at the slowest pace in six years in 2013, according to the IEA. About 4.3 million bpd of primary
distillation capacity was scheduled for completion by 2018, “by far exceeding” demand
projections, it said.
“Growing concerns over the risks of oversupply in the Chinese fuels market have led at least four
projects to be canceled in recent months,” according to the report.
PetroChina’s plans to build a
refinery and
petrochemical complex in east China with Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum stalled last year amid land issues, said the Paris-based agency.
China’s biggest oil producer also delayed two new refineries originally scheduled to start operations this year, data from CNPC, the parent company, showed on Dec. 12. The Kunming plant, with a crude-processing capacity of 10 million tpy, will begin operations in 2016 while the Jieyang facility, a joint venture with Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), has been postponed to 2017.
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