Pdvsa and CNPC lay the foundation stone of Jie Yang refinery

Minister of Petroleum and Mining Rafael Ramírez, together with leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and state-run oil company China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), laid the foundation stone of the Jie Yang refinery, located in the Chinese province of Guangdong, said in a press release state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.

Ramírez stressed that "this is the first of three refineries we are going to build in the Asian country to process 800,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Orinoco Oil Belt."

According to Ramírez, Venezuela's oil and byproduct sales to China stands at 600,000 bpd, which amount to USD 5 billion. Trade between the two countries totaled USD 18 billion at the end of 2011, compared to USD 43 million 13 years ago.