PetroChina Processes Imported Crude Oil

China's Huabei Petrochemical Corp, a subsidiary of PetroChina (PCCYF) Co Ltd, processed this month imported crude oil for the first time and plans annual imports of five million tonnes once an expansion is completed, China Petroleum News reported on Tuesday.

The plant, located in the northern province of Hebei, near Beijing, received its first shipment of foreign crude oil in late August, a 730,000-barrel vessel of Sahara Blend from Algeria.

A 189-km crude oil pipeline has also been newly built to supply to the Huabei refinery. It starts at the Tianjin port and can carry 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day, the paper said.

PetroChina is expanding the plant's processing capacity to 200,000 bpd from 100,000 bpd, and the expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 as Reuters has reported in September last year.

"For better economics and fuel quality, the parent company has decided to allow the plant to use 5 million tonnes of imported crude oil a year," said the paper.

The lighter African fuel is blended into the plant's usual diet of heavier local crude for processing, it added.

Reporting by Beijing newsroom