PetroChina's Biggest Plant Processes 7% More Crude

By Winnie Zhu

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- PetroChina Co. increased crude-oil processing at its biggest refinery by 7 percent to a record last year after new units started operations.

Refining volume at the plant in the northern city of Dalian rose to 14.3 million metric tons, or 286,000 barrels a day, parent China National Petroleum Corp., the country's largest oil company, said in a statement on its Web site today. Sales increased to 61.5 billion yuan ($9 billion), it said.

Seven units started operating in August, in time to meet additional fuel demand during the Beijing Olympics. The plant's annual capacity has almost doubled to 20.5 million tons from a year earlier, China National said Aug. 8.

The plant sources a third of the crude it processes from Daqing, China's largest oilfield, and the rest comes from countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, Zhu Aihua, a spokesman at the refinery, said on July 28.

To contact the reporter on this story: Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net