The National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) may scale down the joint-venture petrochemical complex among PetroChina, Shell and Qatar Petroleum International in Taizhou City of East China's Zhejiang Province to 15-mil mt per year, according to a source with the local merchants bureau.
NDRC has approved in principal the project but cut down its capacity "probably for the fear of over-hot investment in the short term and inflation pressures", said a source close to Shell's Beijing office.
According to the newly-promulgated Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Petroleum and Chemical Industry of Zhejiang Province, the Taizhou project will have a designed refining capacity of 15-mil mt per year, versus the originally planned 22-mil mt per year; ethylene production capacity of the project is unchanged at 1.2-mil mt per year. The project is still pending approval at present, construction of which is expected to kick off during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), the Plan said.
Taizhou project will be of great significance for PetroChina to set foot in East China petrochemical market in the coming five years, as the major takes up only 2.5% of the total refining capacity there currently, market sources pointed out.
PetroChina holds 51% stake in Taizhou project, Shell and Qatar Petroleum International each holds 24.5%. With crude sourced from Qatar Petroleum International and refining technologies provided by Shell, the project will mainly supply its products to China market.
