China's largest joint venture, a petrochemical project off South China Sea built with both Chinese and foreign funds, has completed construction and will go into production in several weeks, according to sources with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's largest offshore oil producer.

The board of CNOOC and Shell Petrochemical Company Limited (CSPC) announced on Friday the completion of the construction of the world-scale petrochemicals complex in the Daya Bay, Huizhou City of south China's Guangdong Province Friday.

According to CNOOC, final preparations for start up are now being made at the complex, at the center of which is an 800,000 tons per annum capacity Lower Olefins Plant.

The project is a joint investment by the CNOOC, Royal Dutch Shell and the Guangdong provincial government.

With a total investment of US$4.3 billion, the project is so far the largest joint venture project in China. Shell holds a share of 50 percent, CNOOC, 45 percent and the Guangdong government, five percent.

After the start-up, the project is expected to turn out 2.3 million tons of petrochemicals products which will be supplied to markets in Guangdong and southeast coastal areas, where demand for petrochemicals are strong.

Most of the utilities units and general facilities have already been in operation for months. The cracker and downstream units are being phased in as part of an integrated start up plan with a full complex product in tank expected in the next few weeks, said Simon Lam, General Manager of CSPC.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2005)