Chinese Petroleum seeks new partners

Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), Taiwan's state-owned oil refiner, may seek partners as early as next month for a NT$367 billion (US$10.8 billion) oil refinery and petrochemicals project.

Chinese Petroleum expects to complete a final assessment of the project this month, company president Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) told reporters in Taipei. Chinese Petroleum wants partners to fund more than 50 percent of the proposed oil and chemicals plant, he said, without naming any potential partners.

The company plans to build a petrochemicals complex and oil refinery in Yunlin County on the west coast to tap rising demand for fuels and chemicals used to make plastics. The project may also help the company compete with Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), Taiwan's only other oil refiner, which has newer plants and is also adding additional capacity.

Chinese Petroleum may build a refinery that can process 300,000 barrels of crude oil a day, the company said. The project may also include a chemical unit with capacity to process naphtha into 1.2 million metric tonnes of ethylene a year.

Chinese Petroleum wants to boost petrochemicals sales because the domestic market for oil products is saturated, Chen said.

Chinese Petroleum also plans to spend NT$42.6 billion building a plant in Kaohsiung County that will produce 1 million tonnes of ethylene a year when completed in 2011, to replace an existing unit.