BEIJING, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Sinopec Corp's newly expanded Tianjin refinery plans to export 70,000 tonnes of diesel this month, with the plant likely to become a regular exporter in 2010, an industry official said.
"The last diesel exports from Tianjin would be four, five years ago," said the official familiar with the plant's operations.
The plant, in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, started test runs at a new 200,000 barrel-per-day crude unit in mid-December, aiming to double crude throughput this year to about 200,000 bpd, an industry source told Reuters.
Most of the fresh fuel supplies would head to southern consuming regions along the east coast, or be exported, as the nearby northern China market was adequately supplied, the official said.
"You may see Tianjin also regularly exporting gasoline, diesel and kerosene," said the official.
