An investment of US$22 million is to be made in east China's Jiangsu Province by the global oil giant British Petroleum (BP) in the construction of an industrial lubricant blending plant.

 

The plant is due for completion at the end of the year and will be BP's largest industrial lubricant facility in China.

 

At the ground-breaking ceremony in Taicang city, Andrew Rodgers, director of BP Industrial Lubricants Supply Chain, said the investment was an important move and would consolidate this part of the company's business in China.

 

The plant will have an initial production capacity of 45 million liters.  By 2010 this will have increased to 70 million liters.

 

Rodgers said the project was an integral part of BP's strategy for growth in their lubricants' business in China. The company had already started investing in building a robust local organization which comprised skilled personnel including management and customer services professionals.

 

BP's business in China is built on both the Castrol and BP brands. BP purchased Castrol, the world's biggest supplier of engine and industrial lubricants, in 2000.

 

The company has a distribution presence for industrial, marine and consumer lubricants in 25 Chinese provinces. .

 

BP's lubricant market is supported by an 80 million-liter capacity blending plant in south China's Guangdong Province and a chain of contracted blenders in China. It also imports from BP plants around the Asia-Pacific area, Europe and the US.

 

As one of the world's largest oil, gas and petrochemical companies with operations in over 100 countries, BP has been operating in China since the early 1970s.

 

Its activities in China include the production and import of natural gas, supply of aviation fuel, import and marketing of liquefied petroleum gas, retail fuel outlets, lubricant blending, petrochemical manufacturing and solar power operations.  

 

With the rapid development of China's economy, BP steps up its operational expansion. Last year saw BP establish an acetic acid joint venture with China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, and inject US$44 million into the strategic restructuring of China Aviation Oil (Singapore).

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2006)