Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
The oil refiner shut the 50,000-barrel-a-day unit late last year, Hwang Jung-shong (
The company may close the refinery and chemical plants on the site by 2015.
Decommissioning of the distillation unit limits the state-run refinery's ability to export fuels.
The company is developing a NT$401 billion (US$12.3 billion) project through its 43 percent-owned venture Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co (國光石化), to make up for the lost capacity from Kaohsiung.
"We're closing the plants because we're forced to," Tsao Mihn (
Taipei-based CPC agreed in 1990 to close the Kaohsiung plants by 2015 in exchange for local residents' consent for a new ethylene plant to be built on the site.
Including the closed distillation unit, the facilities can process 270,000 barrels of crude oil a day and make 500,000 tonnes of ethylene a year, equivalent of 35 percent of the company's refining and 45 percent of its ethylene capacity.
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