BEIJING, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Private Chinese refiner ShandongHengyuan Petrochemical Co closed a $66.3 million acquisition ofa stake in Royal Dutch Shell's Malaysia oil plant on Thursday,according to Shell and a local media report.
Hengyuan Petrochemical agreed in February to buy a 51percent stake in the 156,000 barrels per day refinery at PortDickson, becoming one of the few smaller refining firms in Chinato own an overseas refinery.
Citing senior company executives attending a deal-closingceremony in Kuala Lumpur, the media report said Hengyuan willapply advanced refining technology to upgrade fuel quality ofthe Port Dickson plant that mainly supplies fuel to Malaysia.
"The Shell Malaysia plant is still using Euro II fuelstandards, while the technology Hengyuan is applying is alreadyof Euro V," Wang Zongquan, vice president of the Shandong-basedHengyuan Petrochemical, was quoted as saying by Dezhoutelevision on its social media platform.
In an interview with Reuters in March, Hengyuan's chairmansaid the company wanted to boost its oil trading by working withShell and to expand higher-value chemicals business at its70,000 bpd refinery in Shandong.
Shell confirmed in a statement that the deal had closed. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; editing by David Clarke)