Chinese refiner PetroChina Fushun Petrochemical Company has completely shut down the No 1 plant in northeast China's Liaoning province, according to a report by parent company China National Petroleum Corporation.
The plant had been slated for permanent closure due to unstable foundations.
The 83-year-old No. 1 plant, which has a 3.5 million mt/year crude distillation unit, has often been described as China's oldest refinery, CNPC said in the report in its newsletter China Petroleum Daily on Tuesday.
Fushun's No. 3 plant with a nameplate capacity of 8 million mt/year, which is still in operation, was rocked by an explosion at its 3.5 million mt/year fluid catalytic cracker on January 19.
The FCC has been restarted and is back in operation.
Due to rapid coal mining in the area, the land around the No. 1 refinery suffered severe "deformation" and caused the building to tilt from 1984.
Fushun has been pouring in funds to consolidate and reinforce the structure of its facilities, but the government finally ordered PetroChina to wind down operations at the plant to ensure workers' safety and reduce further damage to the geology, the report said.
The company officially started winding down the plant on February 17, and the last remaining 1.2 million mt/year FCC stopped operations in early March.
The Fushun integrated refining and petrochemical complex is one of the major facilities under PetroChina.
PetroChina, which owns and operates the refinery, is 86.29% owned by state-owned CNPC.
