By Chen Aizhu
BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) - China's Hengyi Group, aprivately run petrochemical maker, hopes to complete a planned$4.3 billion refinery in Brunei by end-2015, a company officialsaid on Friday.
Hengyi Petrochemical Co Ltd, a wholly-owned unitof the east China-based group, said earlier this week it had wonapproval from Beijing for the 160,000 barrels per day (bpd)refinery, which will source part of its crude supplies from oilmajor Royal Dutch Shell.
Hengyi, which said the plan has been given the greenlight byChina's top economic planning agency the National Development &Reform Commission, said it would spend $1.5 billion of its ownfunds and borrow the remaining $2.82 billion from banks.
Hengyi, based in Zhejiang province, is a major producer ofof pure terephthalic acid, or PTA, a key feedstock for makingpolyester, but it has been struggling to secure paraxylene (PX),an intermediate produced from refining crude oil.
Hengyi was likely to have looked offshore for a refineryinvestment as it would have faced difficultly in winningregulatory approval inside China, where the refining industry isdominated by oil majors Sinopec Corp and PetroChina, industry experts said.
The Brunei project includes a 2.2 million tonnes-per-yearhydrocracking unit, a 1.5 million-tpy aromatics unit, a 1.5-million-tpy diesel hydrotreating facility and a 1 million-tpykerosene hydrotreating unit, Hengyi said.
The Chinese firm reached a 15-year deal last October to buyabout 20 million barrels of crude oil a year from Royal DutchShell. The refinery will be built on 259 hectares of land inPuala Muara Besar under a 30-year lease, Hengyi said on itswebsite. (www.hengyi.com)
Founded in 1994, Hengyi Group recorded sales revenue of morethan 70 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in 2012.