CHINA National Petroleum Corp is in talks with Syria to jointly build a US$1 billion refinery in the Middle East nation, according to Syria's deputy prime minister Abdallah al-Dardari.
The planned refinery, to be located in eastern Syria, will have capacity to process 70,000 barrels of crude oil daily, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, quoting al-Dardari who is on a visit to Beijing.
CNPC, China's largest state-owned oil and gas company, and Syria will sign the deal on the project after conducting technological and economic feasibility study.
Construction of the project is likely to start next year and take 24 months to complete, Reuters reported from Damascus. The refinery will help cut Syria's massive fuel imports.
This won't be the first foray for CNPC, parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co, in the Syrian energy sector.
In December 2005, CNPC and India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp took a stake in Syrian oilfields from Petro-Canada in a US$576 million deal.
Syria also plans to bring in Chinese technology to upgrade its aging oilfields and purchase petroleum exploration machinery from China to boost output, Xinhua said.
Syria welcomes more investment and cooperation from the Chinese side, Xinhua said. China is now a key exporter to Syria. Bilateral trade value totaled US$1.4 billion in 2006, from US$906 million a year earlier.