China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's largest oil producer, will build a 10-million-ton refinery in Liaoning Province's Huludao to increase its refining capacity.

The company has approved the plant's feasibility study, a CNPC source said, without saying how much it will invest in the project.

The plant still needs government approval, said the source, who did not wish to be named.

CNPC's subsidiary PetroChina Jinxi Petrochemical Co has an annual refining capacity of 7 million tons in Huludao.

"To meet rising demand, CNPC will boost its capacity by building more refineries," the source said.

This year, the company will bring four new 10-million-ton refineries onstream in Dalian, Fushun, Dushanzi and Guangxi.

It also plans to begin construction of another super refinery in Sichuan province this year with a capacity of more than 10 million tons.

The CNPC source said the company will build another two refineries in Shandong and Yunnan. The Shandong project will be in the coastal city of Weihai and the Yunnan project will be in the provincial capital Kunming.

Each plant will have the capacity to process over 10 million tons of crude oil per year, the source said.

CNPC has signed cooperation deals with several provinces including Shandong, Yunnan, Henan and Gansu.

Meanwhile, Sinopec may expand five refineries along the Yangtze River. The Beijing-based oil and gas producer is studying a plan to expand plants at Anqing, Changling, Baling, Jingmen and Wuhan.

Sinopec processed 155.6 million tons of crude in 2007, about 3.13 million barrels a day - an increase of 6.3 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

China refined 326.79 million tons of crude oil in 2007, an increase of 6.4 percent, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.

The association said China produced 186.7 million tons of crude oil in 2007, up 1.6 percent from 2006.

The country's net import of crude oil was 159.28 million tons last year, an increase of 14.7 percent.

The diesel shortage in the second half of 2007 led to a sharp rise in diesel imports. China imported 1.62 million tons of diesel in 2007, up 130.1 percent year-on-year, while the export volume dropped 14.9 percent to 660,000 tons.