China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Asia's biggest oil refiner, had delayed the restart of a plant in the northern city of Tianjin until today after more than a month of planned maintenance, a company official said.

Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, delayed the plant's restart because of high fuel stockpiles and technical problems encountered during the maintenance, Liu Caixin, a spokeswoman at the Tianjin plant said yesterday.

The plant was scheduled to resume operations in the middle of October, she said.

Sinopec shut the plant that can process 5 million metric tons a year, or 100,000 barrels a day, of crude oil on September 5.

(Shanghai Daily November 6, 2008)