Qingdao Petrochemical to shut down for upgrade

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) announced in late April that it will shut down its three million ton per year (tpy) Qingdao Petrochemical refinery in east China’s Shandong province to pave the way for upgrading of its plant’s crude distillation unit (CDU). The closure will be effective from June 1 to September 30. The three million tpy CDU will be enhanced to allow it to handle highly acidic crude oil, such as Chad Doba crude and Qatar Marine crude. Sinopec added it will also build a new 1.6 million tpy delayed coker as a secondary unit, in order to refine the residue produced from the CDU, which, with a delayed coker, can be further cracked into lighter products such as gasoil and gasoline. In addition to the CDU, Qingdao Petrochemical currently runs a 1.4 million tpy residue fluid catalytic cracker, a 250,000 tpy reformer and some other downstream units. (April 29, 2009)