CNOOC is planning to refine 980,000 tonnes of crude at its Huizhou refinery in January, with the daily throughput stable with the previous month, a company source said.

The refinery accumulatively refined 10.06m tonnes of crude in 2011, with its operation rates averaging 83.8%, the source added.

Located in south China's Guangdong province, the Huizhou refinery is equipped with a 12m tonne/year crude distillate unit, the largest unit in China. It mainly processes offshore heavy crude with high sulphur content.