China
Sinopec Corp has announced that it is restarting the 100 000 bpd Zhanjiang Dongxing refinery. The plant has been offline for nearly a month after it was shut down in September due to environmental rule violations. Two other refineries in the Guangdong region were shutdown by Sinopec for similar reasons in September also.
On Sunday 28th October hundreds of Ningbo residents gathered in the city centre for a third day of protests against the planned expansion of a petrochemical plant in the Ningbo port area. During the first two days of protests, thousands of people clashed with police and authorities resulting in both arrests and injuries. On Sunday, after the third day of protests, the local government promised to cancel the expansion plans.
India
The BPCL owned Kochi refinery is scheduled to undergo a major expansion by 2015. After all expansion work is complete, the facility will be able to produce a higher quality of fuels and meet Euro IV regulations. BPCL are also looking in to a Rs 4500 crore petrochemical project with LG Chem of South Korea.
Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd.