270bln slated for development of Xinjiang resources

Urumqi (CNS) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans aggressive exploration of its petroleum, natural gas and coal production chains, stresses the 2015 strategic goal released by the provincial chemical industry on Monday.

Budgeted at 270 billion yuan (about US$42.81 billion), the autonomous region is slated to double its 2010 chemical industry value by 2015 by building up various industrial production and storage bases covering a comprehensive range of resources, such as oil, gas, coal, salt, and nitrogenous and potash fertilizers.

In particular, four crude oil refining bases will be constructed, each with a capacity of more than 10 million tons, supplemented by China's two biggest crude oil storage depots in Dushanzi and Shanshan, as well as refined oil product storage in Urumqi.

Fine chemicals, as well as new types of chemical products, such as ethylene, propylene and arene, will extend the productivity of the four bases.

The region will continue to mine its rich coal reserves and tighten an integrated production chain for the coal, power and high energy industries.

In order to take full advantage of the region's abundant salt resources, five salt chemical engineering bases are also included in the plan.