The plant, located in Hainan Province, is set to start operation in June next year with a designed annual oil refining capacity of 8 million tons, which is considered a move to step up the reconstruction of China's oil refinery industry, said Wang Jiming, deputy board chairman with the corporation.

With an total investment of more than 10 billion yuan (1.23 billion US dollars), construction of the large-scale oil refinery plant was launched in April 2004. Upon completion, the project is expected to produce 7 million tons of oil and chemical products every year, bringing in an annual revenue of 30 billion yuan (3.7 billion US dollars).

The project will help satisfy the increasing oil demand in Hainan and the Pearl River Delta region, an economically developed area in south China, said Wang.

He added that his corporation also plans to build an oil-refining and petro-chemical base in Hainan to attract more inve