The huge Saudi Basic Industry Corporation (SABIC)-Sinopec Group joint venture refining and ethylene complex plant in the north port city of Tianjin started commercial operation after capacity expansion, the company announced on Tuesday. Sinopec said the Tianjin Refinery would become the largest ethylene production base in China and also the largest refining base in north China. The complex, with a total ethylene production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons (tons) per year and a total primary refining capacity of 15.5 million tons per year, is expected to annually supply market with 5.87 million tons of oil products, 3.2 million tons of ethylene, 1.5 million tons of synthetic rubber and chemical fiber and 750,000 tons of LPG. Before expansion, the Tianjin Refinery had an annual primary refining capacity of merely 5.5 million tons and ethylene production capacity of 200,000 tons. The one million ton-year ethylene production unit of the complex was jointly built by Sinopec and SABIC, with each holding 50 percent stake. Feedstock for the complex was mainly from Saudi Arabia. The Tianjin Refinery was originally slated for startup in September of 2009, but it finally postponed its operational plan. It is because a great number of new or expanded refineries were put into operation last year. In 2009, CNOOC's Huizhou Refinery, Sinopec's Fujian Refinery and PetroChina's Dushanzi Refinery all entered operation, suddenly turning China's fuel market to be surplus. China's crude runs hit a record 8.4 million barrels a day in April and the figure in the January-April period increased by 20.7 percent year on year to 134.8 million tons, as refineries responded to a rise in domestic fuel prices and built up oil product stocks ahead of the World Expo in Shanghai. Analysts expect that China's crude runs in 2010 as a whole would be higher than 2009 due to the refining capacity expansion. Sinopec Group is parent of Sinopec Corp.
