China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country’s largest state-owned oil and gas company, said on Wednesday it will permanently close a small refinery in China’s northwest after the plant failed to meet environmental and safety standards. The Taxinan refinery, in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, will be mothballed from June 30, one of the first and few refining facilities CNPC has shut down amid China’s tightening environmental scrutiny and fuel upgrading. “Despite multiple retooling works, the plant carries hidden dangers and also fails to keep pace with the nation’s fuel upgrading program,” CNPC said on its website on Wednesday. The refinery, located in Zepu county of the Kashgar region, is affiliated with CNPC’s oilfield in the Tarim basin of Xinjiang. It has annual crude processing capacity of 500,000 tonnes, or 10,000 barrels per day. Harry Liu, a senior downstream analyst with IHS Markit, said another […]