China's oil, petrochemical sector faces 5 years of tough challenges

The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for the petroleum and petrochemical industry will focus on eliminating obsolete capacity and raising coal chemical output, officials said on Friday.

Excess capacity will be the sector's biggest challenge during the next five years, Gu Zongqin, head of the China National Petroleum and Chemical Planning Institute, said during the 2014 China Petroleum and Chemical International Conference in Tianjin.

"Overcapacity will be eased during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, but it will be difficult to resolve the problem entirely," he said.