In China's far western region of Xinjiang, PetroChina Company Limited’s Dushanzi Petrochemical Company recently announced the launch of an ethane-fed ethylene project worth 8.04 billion yuan ($1.24 billion).

Asia's largest oil and gas producer PetroChina believes that this initiative will help minimize excessive reliance on foreign ethylene processing technologies. The ethane that will be utilized as a feedstock in the project will be extracted from the natural gas churned out at PetroChina’s Tarim oilfield. The project is expected to generate 600,000 tons of ethylene per year as well as 300,000 tons of high-density polyethylene and 300,000 tons of full-density polyethylene.

Dushanzi Petrochemical presently has an ethylene capacity of 2 million tons per year. The company also completed the trial operation of an 800,000-tons-per-year ethane-to-ethylene plant in Shaanxi province in early August.

Company Summary

PetroChina is the largest integrated oil company in China. It was established in November 1999 as part of the restructuring of China National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned entity, which currently holds 81.03% stake in PetroChina. The company operates in four segments, namely Exploration & Production, Natural Gas & Pipelines, Refining & Chemicals, and Marketing.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

PetroChina currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players in the  energy  space are Devon Energy Corporation (DVN Quick QuoteDVN - Free Report) , Matador Resources Company (MTDR Quick QuoteMTDR - Free Report) and Continental Resources, Inc. , each presently flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.