A CHINESE petrochemicals joint venture between CNOOC and Royal Dutch Shell planned to expand capacity of its Nanhai complex in Guangdong Province, a newspaper reported Monday.

The Huizhou Daily said Shell Chemicals executive vice president Ben Van Beurden told a delegation of officials from Huizhou, about the expansion during a trip to London led by the city’s mayor, Li Ruqui.

The US$4.3 billion venture by CNOOC and Shell Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (CSPC) has built the plant near Huizhou, next to the site of a CNOOC refinery that Shell hopes to help build.

The report, carried on an industry Web site, gave no further details about expansion of the plant, which now produces 800,000 tons of ethylene and 430,000 tons of propylene a year, as well as a variety of other petrochemicals.

Van Beurden also said Shell would be interested in participating in oil refining projects nearby, the report said, matching comments last month by Shell’s top downstream official, Rob Routs, who said a refinery deal was vital to long-term success in a key market.

Routs said the company was still in talks with Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) about a US$5 billion plant in Guangdong despite reports the Kuwaiti firm wanted to drop Shell as a partner, and was exploring other projects.

Shell, which has a large presence in China and is aggressively pushing to expand it, last week began delivery of bunker fuel to international customers in Shanghai, through a joint venture with PetroChina unit Chimbusco.(SD-Agencies)