Saudi Arabia has sent its first cargo of crude to an upgraded refinery in China's southeastern province of Fujian, the state oil firm Saudi Aramco said.

The Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Co Ltd is a $5 billion joint venture between Sinopec, Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco.

Saudi Arabia overtook Angola to become the biggest oil supplier to China in 2008, accounting for a fifth of its supplies. China is the third-largest buyer of Saudi crude after the United States and Japan.

A 900,000 barrel cargo of Arab Extra Light crude arrived at the Dalian terminal on Feb. 16 from Ras Tanura, the largest offshore oil facility in the kingdom, Aramco said in a statement.

"The arrival of the Arabian crude oil to this terminal signifies Saudi Aramco's supply commitment as a shareholder, said Aramco's Ibrahim al-Buainain, director of Asia joint ventures.

"And I would like to assure you that a stream of Saudi Arabian crude is now making its steady flow to Fujian province and that it will continue for many generations," he said.   

Fujian currently runs a 80,000-bpd crude oil unit. It had previously planned to start a trial run of a new 160,000 bpd crude unit in July 2008 and a chemical unit in March this year.

But the crude unit was only completed in October last year and Sinopec postponed the trial to the first quarter of 2009.

Sinopec hopes to double Fujian's capacity to 480,000 bpd between 2010 and 2015. With oil prices diving from a record $147 a barrel hit in July last year, the state-owned group aims for a 2009 revival in its refining business after posting massive losses for several years due to high crude costs and low state-set fuel prices.

Most of the oil giant's businesses, including refining, oil and gas production and fuel selling are operated by listed Sinopec Group.- Reuters