A Sinopec booth at a Shanghai exhibition. Sinopec, supplier of two-thirds of the nation's auto fuels, plans to spend about 16 billion yuan expanding plants in central China.[China Daily]

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), supplier of two-thirds of the nation's auto fuels, plans to spend about 16 billion yuan expanding plants in central China, a company official said.

Capacity at the Changling refinery in Hunan province will be doubled to 10 million metric tons a year by 2010 at a cost of about 10 billion yuan, the official said, asking not to be named because of company rules.

Sinopec, the country's largest refiner, will spend six billion yuan upgrading its Baling plant, which turns output from Changling into chemicals.

Sinopec's plan comes as China strains to meet fuel demand in a booming economy. The government yesterday ordered refiners to ensure supplies after snowstorms disrupted transportation.

China may use 25 percent of global chemical output by 2015, Exxon Mobil Corp said in May.

"The project shows the company's concern about rising fuel demand in central China, where there is a lack of large-scale oil refineries," said Qiu Xiaofeng, an oil analyst with China Merchants Securities Co.

Expansion work at the Changling refinery may start this year, the official said. Huang Wensheng, a spokesman for Beijing-based Sinopec, declined to comment.

Sinopec increased oil processing by 6.3 percent last year to 155.58 million tons, about 3.13 million barrels a day, the company said last week. The refiner supplied almost two-thirds of China's refined oil products in 2006.

Sinopec may enlarge five oil refineries along the Yangtze River, Company Secretary Chen Ge said in May. The Beijing-based oil and gas producer is studying a plan to expand plants at Anqing, Changling, Baling, Jingmen and Wuhan, Chen had said.

Parent China Petrochemical Corp said in August that it signed a cooperation agreement with the provincial government of Hunan to promote energy projects. China Petrochemical will expand refining capacity and its sales network for oil products and gas in the region, the company said.