BEIJING, Jan 3 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) Chief Executive Officer Farouk Al-Zanki is in Beijing to hold a series of meetings with Chinese oil executives, including on a planned a refinery and petrochemical complex in south China.

The USD 9 billion project with Asia's top refiner Sinopec, potentially to be the largest Sino-foreign joint venture in China, involves a 300,000 barrel-per-day refinery, a 1 million-ton-a-year ethylene plant and retail network in Guangdong Province.

KPC and Sinopec will each hold an equal 50 percent stake in the world-class integrated complex, to which Kuwait will be a sole crude oil supplier. With an eye to starting operations of the refinery part at the end of 2014, construction has already begun.

The Kuwaiti side seeks simultaneous startup of both refinery and ethylene plant, as profit-earning petrochemicals part is inseparable from the refinery part, Al-Zanki told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) during his Asian tour in October.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, regulates fuel prices at 20-30 percent below world market levels to curb inflation. Thus Chinese refineries often lose money on their refining operations when crude oil prices are soaring.

KPC commits to the whole project as approved by the NDRC in March 2011, which includes both refinery and petrochemicals.

KPC also aims to gain larger share of the retail rights in Guangdong Province, particularly ownership of petrol stations, in order to ensure satisfactory economic returns from the project, Al-Zanki has said earlier.

With a population of some 100 million, Guangdong is China's largest oil consuming province that creates a huge energy market. Securing domestic marketing rights will generate higher profitability of the downstream joint venture.

The joint venture is one of the pillars of KPC's expansion strategy for 2030 and expectation for success is very high. Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), KPC's international refining and market unit, has been representing Kuwait in lengthy negotiations with the Chinese side since 2005.

During his stay in Beijing before heading for Hanoi to discuss another refinery project in Vietnam, Al-Zanki is also scheduled to meet senior officials from major Chinese oil companies and sign agreements.