Officials said the plant will open by the end of this year and be expanded to 62,000 tons by 2010.

BP said the plant will boost its supply position and give it more flexibility to serve customers in China. Currently its business there sells products made at a plant that it co-owns in Guangdong Province and by toll blenders that it contracts. It also imports products from BP plants in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

BP described the new plant as state-of-the-art, saying it will have a computerized automated batch blender configuration which will enable it to produce over 400 products from over 500 different types of raw materials. The industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids made there will be marketed under the BP and Castrol brand names.