Sinopec has started building an 18,000 barrels-a-day hydrofining unit at its Jiujiang plant in Jiangxi province to improve petrol quality. The project, costing around Rmb167m, will be completed in January 2010, according to the company.

The facility will reduce sulphur content in petrol to 0.015 per cent from 0.05 per cent. This is in line with national measures to address China’s worsening pollution caused in part by the soaring number of vehicles. China plans to move to the third phase of emission standards nationwide — similar to Europe’s Euro III standards — starting in 2009 for petrol and 2010 for diesel.

Sinopec completed an expansion at Jiujiang in 2008, which increased its crude processing capacity by 30 per cent to 6.5m tonnes a year, or 130,000 barrels per day.