UPDATE 1-Sinopec aims to run 4.1 mln bpd crude in 2010

BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) plans to process 205 million tonnes of crude in 2010, or about 4.1 million barrels per day (bpd), its president said on Tuesday.

The target is 14 percent higher than the average rate of 3.59 million bpd for the first three quarters of this year.

Sinopec would add 12 million to 15 million tonnes of refining capacity each year in the next three years, its president Wang Tianpu said, adding that the refiner would continue to expand refineries in Shanghai, Yangzi, Jinling, Anqing, Shijiazhuang, Maoming and Changling.

Sinopec's refining capacity would rise to 200 million tonnes, or 4 million bpd, by end of this year, he said. However the target is clearly conservative as the company made the same estimate for 2008.

The target is about 20 percent higher than the company's refining capacity of 166 million tonnes at the end of 2007.

The Chinese authorities recently quietly endorsed a new plan to increase domestic refining capacity by 40 percent by 2015, focusing on the expansion of existing sites rather than new plants, industry sources said last month.

The targeted capacity of 11 million barrels per day -- enough to ensure China remains self-sufficient in refined fuels as long as demand grows at around 5-6 percent -- is an extension to an industry "revitalisation plan" announced in May that set a goal of 8.8 million bpd by 2011. (Reporting by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu; writing by Eadie Chen; Editing by Chris Lewis)