OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2011. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) will start operating a 5 million-ton oil refining project in its Ningxia refinery from late October after the project's main equipments were connected on Sept. 21, nearly 10 months ahead of schedule, Ningxia Daily reported.

The project laid foundation stone in 2008 and broke ground on June 28, 2010. As CNPC's first EPC contract project by a refinery in China, the project is supposed to optimize the configuration of western China's crude oil resources and speed up the adjustment of refining business distribution and strategic structure.

t is reported that the project can supply 1.67 million tons of gasoline and 2.29 million tons of diesel for Ningxia and its surrounding markets each year. The annual output of the Ningxia refinery will exceed 30 billion yuan (USD 4.7 billion), a steady support for the region's economic development.