OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2014. PetroChina plans to start commercial operations at its new USD6bn greenfield and petrochemical complex in southwest China, in April 2014.

The 200,000bpd refinery, which is situated in Pengzhou of Sichuan province, has started its test operations in January 2014.

The plant has been designed to process PetroChina's own crude from northwest Xinjiang region, as well as oil from Kazakhstan and Russia.

Through a trunk pipeline started in 2006, the crude will be piped to the refinery from Kazakhstan.

The company noted that the refinery is integrated with a petrochemical complex comprising 800,000 tonne-per-year ethylene unit that makes feedstock for plastics and textiles.

PetroChina official was quoted by Reuters as saying, "Crude oil have been pumped into the refinery system since several weeks ago. Last week the petrochemical facility also entered test operations."