New units to triple capacity to 240,000 barrels per at China's Fujian refinery will start up this year and be fully on line by the end of the first quarter 2009, Saudi Aramco said on its website on Wednesday. Aramco is a partner in a $5 billion project to boost the plant's capacity and add petrochemical units with China's Sinopec and US Exxon Mobil. “The project ... is now 75 percent complete and will start in stages during this year,” Aramco said. “By the first quarter of 2009, the last phase of the project, the ethylene plant, is expected to be online. The plant will process Aramco's heavy crude. The world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is the main supplier of crude to China, the world's second largest energy consumer. The Fujian deal, first agreed in 2005, gave Aramco and Exxon a foothold in China's insular refining sector, dominated by state giants Sinopec and PetroChina. “China is growing, and Saudi Aramco is committed to be a constituent to the Chinese energy demand,” said Khalid Al-Buainain, Aramco senior vice president for refining, marketing and international. Aramco is also in talks for a stake in Sinopec's new 200,000 bpd Qingdao plant, which started production in May. Sinopec holds 50 percent of the Fujian plant, while Aramco and Exxon each hold 25 percent. Khalid G. Al-Buainain, Saudi Aramco's senior vice president of Refining, Marketing and International, met with partners in the Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Project during a recent visit to China. He met with Sinopec President Wang Tian Pu and discussed issues pertaining to the Fujian joint venture and future cooperation between Saudi Aramco and Sinopec in new investments and crude supply. He also visited Saudi Petroleum in Beijing and met with the staff there. The project, which includes a 240,000-barrel-per-day refinery and will produce 2.2 million metric tons of petrochemicals a year, is now 75 percent complete and will start in stages during this year. By the first quarter of 2009, the last phase of the project, the etheylene plant, is expected to be online. “China is growing, and Saudi Aramco is committed to be a constituent to the Chinese energy demand,” Al-Buainain said. “The Fujian joint venture is part of our commitment to the high growth market in China.”
