<article><p class="lead">China's two newest private-sector refinery projects are touting progress in commissioning their operations, but are yet to start full commercial operations.</p><p>The 400,000 b/d first phase of ZPC's Zhoushan refinery has started operations at its crude units (CDUs), major shareholder Rongsheng Petrochemical said yesterday. That indicates Rongsheng has met its target to formally open the project in the second quarter — although full output is not expected until later this year.</p><p>ZPC started trial operations in February but its progress since then is unclear. Rongsheng did not say whether any secondary units had started up or indicate the status of product sales or output. The refinery, in eastern Zhejiang province, is likely to bring petrochemical units on line in the second half of this year but may not reach nameplate capacity until the fourth quarter.</p><p>Rongsheng's announcement came just three days after China's other major new private-sector refinery project, Hengli Petrochemical's 400,000 b/d Changxing refinery in Dalian, marked its full commissioning on 17 May. Hengli plans to run the refinery at full capacity this month but will likely postpone gasoline sales to June or later.</p><p>Hengli ran one of its two CDUs at full capacity in March and brought the second unit on line in April, then ramped up runs at the latter unit in early May. Its two paraxylene units are running at a combined 60-70pc capacity and will be able to operate at higher rates by the end of May. The refinery has been facing investor pressure to ramp up runs but may not be ready yet to market transportation fuels – an area in which, like ZPC, it has little experience.</p></article>
