Sinochem Quanzhou refinery wins final government approval (China)

State-run Sinochem Corp has won government approval for its first major oil refinery, the 240,000 barrel-per-day Quanzhou refinery on the southeast coast.

The US$4.6 billion refinery, first planned in 2005, won final approval from the National Development and Reform Commission on Aug. 20, the company said on its website.

The project also includes a 2.4 million tonne-per-year fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, the company has said, Reuters reports.

Sinochem Group President Liu Deshu told Reuters in March that trial production at Quanzhou would begin in June 2013, slightly earlier than originally planned.

Liu said the plant would process crude mainly from the Middle East, including OPEC member Kuwait, with which Sinochem agreed a 2007 deal to buy 240,000 bpd of crude.

Sinochem Corp said last year that it planned to raise up to 35 billion yuan via an initial public offering in Shanghai, and use the proceeds to pay for the refinery.

Sinochem, chiefly a trader of petroleum and chemicals, has long aimed to become an integrated energy firm with assets including oil and gas exploration and production, refining and retailing.

It is the largest stakeholder in China's first joint-venture refinery WEPEC in the northeastern city of Dalian, a refinery now operated by top Chinese oil and gas firm PetroChina.