Shandong-based Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical plans to boost its comprehensive refining capacity to 14-mil mt per year in 2013, according to a source with the company.
This expansion project has passed feasibility study and it is undergoing preparations for the early stage, such as basic designs, the source said on Monday.
This project comprises a 2.6-mil-mt/yr VGO hydrogenation unit, a 600,000-mt/yr jet hydrogenation complex and a 2.6-mil-mt/yr fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), according to the source. The construction of the 2.6-mil-mt/yr FCC was already approved by Sinopec in January 2011 and is now underway.
Under this expansion project, the company will also hike the capacity of a continuous reformer from 600,000mt/yr to 800,000mt/yr and raise that of a delayed coker from 1.4-mil mt/yr to 1.7-mil mt/yr, he said. In addition, it will upgrade a 1-mil-mt/yr gasoil hydrogenation unit.
Qilu Petrochemical plans to shut down its aged 1.4-mil-mt/yr FCC when it starts operation of the 2.6-mil-mt/yr FCC in 2013, C1 reported earlier.
Qilu Petrochemical is a major Chinese refinery processing high-sulfur crude, running mostly on domestic Shengli crude and high-sulfur crude from the Middle East. After starting the fourth crude distillate unit in March 2010, the refinery’s copping capacity went up to 14-mil mt/yr, but its comprehensive refining capacity has been relatively low at 10.5-mil mt/yr.
