RusEnergy

SHANGHAI, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] will build a joint oil refinery in China by 2010, the Russian state-run oil firm said Wednesday. The joint venture, one of two joint projects of the companies, will be located near Beijing and will refine crude, sell oil derivatives and operate a network of 300 gasoline stations around the refinery. "The plant will refine about 10 million metric tons of oil, and will be completed by 2010," Sergei Goncharov, head of Rosneft in China, said. Speaking at the third Russian-Chinese-Kazakh oil and gas forum in Shanghai, Goncharov said Rosneft, Russia's third-largest crude producer, would hold 49% in the joint venture, and China's subsidiary PetroChina would control 51%. Goncharov said the companies expected to launch the project next year. "We think we will be able to put the joint venture into operation next year," he said. Goncharov said Russia supplied about 10 million metric tons of oil, worth more than $6 billion, to its East Asian neighbor's rapidly growing economy in 2006, and would further increase deliveries next year. He said deliveries through the Kazakhstan-China pipeline from Atasu to Alashankou would be raised by one million metric tons, and that more oil would be pumped through the Sakhalin-I project in Russia's Far East. Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov said early last month that the company was capable of increasing crude deliveries to China by 60% to 20 million metric tons against the 12-13.5 million metric tons expected this year. Rosneft and CNPC, China's top energy group, are also setting up the other joint venture - on Russian territory. Goncharov said it had already been registered in Russia as Vostok Energy Ltd. "It has been registered in Russia, and the partners have made the required contributions to the fixed capital," Goncharov said, adding that Vostok Energy would be controlled by Rosneft (51%) and would do geological prospecting and produce crude in Russia. Rosneft is also the main supplier in the East Siberia-Pacific pipeline project to China and other Asia-Pacific nations.