Hengli Petrochemical, a unit of private Chinese chemical giant Hengli Group, has obtained state approval to import 400,000 bpd of crude oil—the largest quota ever handed to a private Chinese refiner, as it aims to start a new refinery this year, challenging the smaller independent Chinese refiners. Listed Hengli Petrochemical said in a stock exchange filing that the Chinese state economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), had approved the import quota. Hengli Petrochemical has plans to begin this October trial runs at a new refinery on the northeastern port city of Dalian, a facility which will be one of the five biggest Chinese refineries. “We hope to get enough allowances for the refinery to start trial operations in October,” a senior Hengli official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity. The Dalian refinery’s two crude distillation units (CDU) are designed to process 30 percent of Saudi […]