Sinochem set foot in oil refining since late 1980s and remains the largest shareholder of West Pacific Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (WEPEC), the first Sino-foreign equity joint venture dedicated to refining, with 10 million metric tons of crude oil processing capacity per annum, including a 10-million-metric-ton crude distillation unit (CDU), a 3-million-metric-ton fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), a 2-million-metric-ton atmospheric residue desulphurization (ARDS) unit and a 100,000-metric-ton sulfur recovery unit, every device boasting the largest capacity nationwide. With the installment of 2-million-ton diesel hydra-treating unit and 1.5-million-ton-per-annum hydrogen cracking unit in 2007, WEPEC has become a hydrogenation refining plant capable of processing high-sulfur crude oil.

At the end of 2007, Sinochem Quanzhou Heavy Oil Processing Project started construction, projected to produce gasoline, diesel and various petrochemical products and expected to put into production by 2010. Upon completion, the plant will become one of China’s most state-of-the-art petrochemical enterprises and will help Fujian Province become China’s petrochemical base, conducive both to Sinochem Corporation’s strategic realignment and to the local economy on the west side of the Taiwan Strait.