PetroChina Resumes Guangdong Refinery Construction

Asia'a largest oil and gas firm PetroChina (PCCYF) resumed construction of its oil refinery and petrochemical project in southern Chinese province of Guangdong, as the number of new coronavirus cases fell for a second straight day.

In an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, China had extended Lunar New Year holidays and asked companies to put workers returning from their hometown into a 14-day quarantine.

With workers and machineries gradually in place, the $10 billion refinery project in Jieyang city is expected to fully restart construction by end-February, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The project is scheduled to be fully completed by June 2022, with the launch of an oil refining section by end-2021 and chemical section in March 2022.

The new coronavirus has caused 2,004 deaths in China and infected more than 74,000 people, while measures to contain it have paralysed the economy and the supply chains it feeds.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Chen Aizhu, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)