Quanzhou refinery exports more high-quality oil products

Exports of high-quality refined oil－produced using domestically manufactured equipment by Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co Ltd's huge refinery-have been increasing among the Belt and Road countries, said General Manager Zhang Qiang.

Zhang said that oil overcapacity currently in China mostly involves lower-quality crude and outdated capacity, and high-quality oil is, in fact, in short supply.

The Sinochem Quanzhou is located in the Quanhui Petrochemical Industrial Park of Quanzhou, Fujian province. It has total installed capacity for processing 12 million metric tons of crude oil per year. In 2015, Sinochem Quanzhou refined 9.97 million tons of crude.

"Our company's main goal is to produce high-quality oil for the domestic and overseas market," Zhang said.

The refinery, which began operations in 2014, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinochem Group, a State-owned enterprise whose portfolio spans oil, agriculture and chemical services.

Sinochem Quanzhou's oil is produced under the national V emission standard for automobiles, equivalent to the Euro 5 emission standard for acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold in the European Union from September 2009 to January 2014.

China is following the national IV emission standard. The national V emission standard will be implemented nationwide in January 2017.

Zhang said that two-thirds of his company's exports are to the Belt and Road countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Netherlands.

In order to guarantee the quality of its product, the company is using a high level of advanced and modern processing equipment, 95 percent of which was produced in China.

Wang Yucui, chief designer of the project in Quanzhou, said that multinational companies have dominated the high-end petrochemical equipment market.

"Relying on foreign equipment is a huge burden on China's petrochemical industry," Wang said.

"Having the equipment made in China of the same quality is critical for China to produce high-quality oil at competitive prices," Wang added.

Chinese refineries used to import 4M150 hydrogen compressors－a key component for high-grade oil refining. Sinochem Quanzhou has developed the same equipment, together with Shenyang Blower Works Group Corp.