Madi reiterated Saudi Aramco's commitment to the Chinese market and said he hoped the visit would strengthen the relationship between Saudi Aramco and Sinopec. After the meeting, the SPL team toured plant facilities. Qingdao Refinery has 16 key refining units, including a 200,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit; a 22,000-bpd continuous reformer; a 133,000-bpd hydro cracker; an 83,000-bpd hydro refining unit for kerosene and gas-oil and a 100,000-bpd residual oil hydrotreater and 220,000-metric-ton-per-year sulfur recovery unit. The refinery, with total investment of $1.79 billion, will begin commercial operations in June after two months of test runs, according to a latest report carried by Saudi Aramco's web-site. The refinery is designed to process 50 percent Arabian Light and 50 percent Arabian Heavy crude. It is capable of producing Euro-III-equivalent oil products and will mainly serve the North China market.
