Trial production will begin in June next year at a $4.6-billion refinery being built by China's state-run Sinochem Corp in the coastal city of Quanzhou, the company's chief said on Thursday, slightly earlier than planned.

The 240,000-barrel-a-day facility will be the first major refinery owned by the group, chiefly a trader of petroleum and chemicals with a long-standing ambition to become an integrated energy player.

Group President Liu Deshu told Reuters the plant would process crude mainly from the Middle East, including OPEC member Kuwait, with which Sinochem agreed a 2007 supply pact to buy 240,000 bpd of crude.

Liu said Sinochem had yet to engage any foreign partner for the venture.

"We are now in the middle of building the refinery. We don't want to complicate the issue now," Liu said on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session.

European oil major Total, Sinochem's partner in the joint-venture Chinese refinery WEPEC, was at one point looking to tie up with Sinochem on the Quanzhou plant.

Kuwait, now partner with top Chinese refiner Sinopec Corp in the $9.3-billion Zhanjiang refinery-petrochemical venture, was also a potential candidate for Sinochem, industry sources have said.