Sinopec Sets Goal of 42 Million Tons in Crude Oil Production

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) (Beijing) recently held its annual meeting to set goals for 2008. According to a news release from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Sinopec plans include:

•Produce 42 million tons of crude oil

•Produce 9 billion cubic meters of natural gas

•Produce 6.8 million tons of ethylene

•Process 178 million tons of crude oil

•Sell 124 million tons of processed oil

•Procure 9 million tons of crude oil from overseas

Sinopec will also reduce capital costs by $1.9 billion, integrated energy consumption by 1.2% and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by 3%.

Reports state that Sinopec, China Petrochemical Corporation (NYSE:PTR) (PetroChina) (Beijing) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) (Beijing) will have seven refinery projects finished or expanded in 2008, which will help the three Chinese oil giants increase capacity by 54.5 million tons. In the new capacity, Sinopec will take 20.5 million tons, PetroChina will take 22 million tons and CNOOC will take 12 million tons. About 22.5 million tons will be gained by expanding, and 32.5 million tons will be obtained by new factories.

A 2005 report by NDRC stated that China's refining capacity will exceed 98,000 tons per day, accounting for nearly half of the world's total.

Sinopec recently released 2007 business data that show that in 2007, it produced 292 million barrels of crude oil (about 40 million tons) and 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The company also refined 156 million tons of crude oil to produce 24.69 million tons of gasoline, 60.08 million tons of diesel, 8.32 million tons of kerosene and 23.47 million tons of light oil for the chemical industry (naphtha).

In terms of petrochemicals, the company produced 6.53 million tons of ethanol, 9.66 million tons of synthetic resin, 800,000 tons of synthetic rubber, 1.42 million tons of synthetic fibers and 1.57 million tons of urea.

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