(MENAFN- AzerNews) Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil-exporting company, will
start construction this year of a major integrated refinery and
petrochemical complex in northeast China.
Construction of the complex located in Panjin City, Liaoning
Province, will begin in Q2 following completion of administrative
approvals, the company said in a March 26 statement following CEO
Amin Nasser's visit to Beijing.
The complex, which will receive 210,000 b/d of crude from Aramco,
is expected to be fully operational by 2026.
Aramco has a 30% interest in the complex through the Huajin
Aramco Petrochemical Co., with NORINCO Group holding 51% and Panjin
Xincheng Industrial Group the remaining 19% interest.
The project represents " a major milestone in our ongoing
downstream expansion strategy in China and the wider region, which
is an increasingly significant driver of global petrochemical
demand," Mohammed al-Qahtani, Aramco executive vice president of
downstream, said in the statement.
During an investor call to discuss Aramco's 2022 financial
results, Aramco's Nasser said that a significant share of external
investments was tied into its capex for 2022 and 2023 with the
company continuing to prioritize downstream assets in large markets
such as China.
"We think China will continue to grow in terms of demand. We
have a number of investments, but we cannot declare right now, but
hopefully in the next one to two years, even through 2023, we are
going to have a number of investments in China," he said March
16.
"We have been for some time negotiating. Some of it is
grassroots and some of it is existing assets that we have, and we
are reaching a good stage in our negotiation to finalize the
agreement for these investments," he added.
Saudi Arabia is China's top crude supplier with most of the
country's refineries designed to crack Middle East crudes.
China is central to Aramco's strategy to diversify into more
specialized high-value chemical products and less carbon intensive
hydrocarbon usage, under which it has said it plans to convert up
to 4 million b/d of crude oil to chemicals.
The Saudi company signed a number of agreements with Chinese
entities in December during the visit of President Xi Jinping to
Riyadh.
The deals covered a potential crude supply agreement and
chemical offtake agreements.
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