China National Coal Group Corp (ChinaCoal) has started to build a coal-to-chemical facility in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, the company said.

The facility comprises a methanol plant with a capacity to process 250,000 tons of coal per year and an oil shale processing plant with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year.

ChinaCoal said the project entailed a combined investment of 1.66 billion yuan.

It expects the methanol plant to have an annual output of 480,000 tons and the oil shale processing plant to produce 12,000 tons of naphtha and 40,200 tons of light-grade fuel oil per year when they come on stream next year.

The two plants are projected to generate profit of over 300 million yuan on sales revenue of 1 billion yuan every year, the company said.