Northeast China-based Liaoyang refinery, a unit of PetroChina (0857.HK) (stock code: 601857), has started up a new diesel facility that produces premium quality fuel, PetroChina's parent company said on Tuesday.

The 1.2 million tonne per year (about 24,000 barrels per day) hydrotreating unit is part of the plant's expansion programme that raised its crude refining capacity to 110,000 bpd, CNPC, parent of PetroChina, said in its in-house paper China Petroleum Daily.

The diesel facility cost 200 million yuan ($27 million), the report said.

The new crude unit, on stream since the end of 2006, was designed to process Russian crude. ($1=7.339 Yuan) (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Edmund Klamann)