OREANDA-NEWS. April 17, 2012. China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec Corp) , Asia's largest refiner, will close a 160,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude oil unit at its Jinling refinery from mid-April for about a month-long turnaround, an industry source said.

Crude runs in Jinling refinery in eastern Jiangsu province, however, will not be affected as the plant is starting a new 160,000-bpd crude distillation unit, according to the source.

Jinling started pumping oil into the new crude unit last week, which would raise its overall crude capacity to 430,000-bpd, the largest in China after the 460,000-bpd Zhenhai refinery, also run by Sinopec Corp.

But actual crude processing capacity in Jinling will not reach that level until August when other complementary units are put into use, the source said.