PetroChina's new refinery plans 80% operation next yr

BEIJING - PetroChina Co Ltd plans to operate its newly started 200,000-barrel-per-day Qinzhou refinery in southern China at an average of 80 percent capacity next year, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing an anonymous source at the company.

Planned throughput for next year was eight million tons compared with a total of about 2.2 million tons processed between early September when the plant started test runs through to the end of this month, the report said.

"The crude terminal is not up to the speed and the plant's processing configuration is not sophisticated enough, meaning overall costs are higher than average," the official said.