PetroChina Co's Dalian oil refinery, the company's biggest, is operating at a normal rate even as an oil spill closed nearby berths, because the plant relies on its own docks to ensure steady crude supplies and fuel shipments.
The plant is operating at 95 percent of capacity, said a PetroChina official at Dalian who declined to be named because he isn't authorized to speak to the media. The refinery can process 20.5 million metric tons a year of crude, or 410,000 barrels a day.
An explosion on July 16 in the Xingang zone at Dalian Port, which operates the nation's largest crude terminal, damaged oil pipelines and caused a slick that blanketed more than 183 square kilometers (70 square miles) of sea. While some crude supplies come from Xingang, PetroChina's Dalian refinery relies on its own docks to receive cargoes, the official said.
The refinery's docks at Dalian can berth vessels of as much as 100,000 tons, he said. Larger ships can be diverted to ports in the eastern province of Shandong where supplies can be transferred to smaller tankers, if needed, the official said.
The Dalian plant also gets crude supplies by rail and road, and has enough crude stockpiles to meet seven days of processing, the official said.
