PetroChina Karamay's New Unit Doubles Capacity of Naphtha-Based Lube Oil in Xinjiang Region

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--PetroChina Karamay Petrochemical Company Limited, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has successfully completed the trial run of its second set of high-pressure, hydro-processing units, increasing the annual production capacity of naphtha-based lube oil to 600,000 tons from 300,000 tons. The $69.3 million unit has helped the company become one of China's largest naphtha-based lube oil manufacturers.

The unit began construction in 2005 and was completed in June 2007, and complies with national regulations, said Xu Lijia, the company's Vice General Manager.

PetroChina Karamay was established in 1959 to exploit the rich reserves in Karamay's oil field, particularly naphtha-based crude oil. The scarce resources account for 2.2% of the world's approved oil reserves and can only be found in a few countries, including the United States, Venezuela and China. With more than 3,000 employees, the company has become an integrated petrochemical complex, producing about 5 million tons per year of fuel, lube oil and asphaltum.

To address the ever-expanding domestic demand of energy and the soaring international oil price, China is turning to oil-abundant Xinjiang. In 2005, the region produced 23.93 million tons of crude oil and 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In 2010, it is expected that the crude oil produced in Xinjiang will reach 35 million tons and that the region will account for 20% of the country's crude oil supply, with about 10 million tons of crude oil added through the Sino-Kazakhstan pipeline to Xinjiang.

Apart from crude oil, Xinjiang is also rich in coal reserves and wind energy potential. The expected coal reserves in Xinjiang's nine large coalfields amount to 1.64 trillion tons, about 30% of China's total. Before 2010, Xinjiang is expected to produce 120 million tons per year of coal, with many coal mines constructed. Xinjiang also has nine large wind-abundant zones covering 150,000 square kilometers. The areas have been proven to be capable of large wind powerhouses with a potential capacity totaling 80 million kilowatts.

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