PetroChina Co Ltd will bring a new 800,000-tonne-per-year (tpy) ethylene unit on stream at its Fushun refinery in October, bringing total ethylene capacity at the refinery to 1.0 million tpy, industry sources said on Friday.

Fushun expanded crude refining capacity to 11.5 million tpy or 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the end of last year from less than 10 million tpy, they said.

But the refinery's crude runs in the first half of this year totalled just 3.33 million tonnes because the existing 200,000 tpy in ethylene production capacity did not match the expanded refining capacity, they said, adding that crude runs could pick up after the new ethylene unit started operations.