PetroChina has started an oil refinery with annual capacity of 10 million tons in southern China's Guangxi Province to supply high quality fuel to southwestern areas.

Just days ago, the country's biggest oil producer won government approval to double the capacity of its Huabei oil refinery in Hebei Province to supply higher quality products to the northern regions as China steps up efforts to upgrade fuel standards to cut emissions.

The 15.1 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) refinery in Qinzhou in Guangxi is capable of producing 8.3 million tons of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and liquefied petroleum gas as well as 900,000 tons of petrochemical products. Its fuels all meet euro III quality standards and 70 percent of them meet euro IV specifications, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said yesterday.

The project was approved in February 2007 and construction began at the end of 2007.

"Demands for energy continues to increase in China's southwestern areas with the fast economic development. The refinery in Qinzhou marks the first large-scale oil refinery in the southwestern region," CNPC said.

A week ago, PetroChina said it would double capacity of its Huabei oil refinery to 10 million tons a year, making it the 14th in China with an annual capacity of 10 million tons or more.