The approval paves the way for Shenghong Petrochemical to start trial production at its 320,000 barrels per day refinery in Lianyungang in east China.

The company said the approval will allow the refinery to use 15.89 million tonnes of imported crude oil in 2022 and 16 million tonnes from 2023.

A company executive told Reuters earlier this week that construction of the $10 billion complex had been completed and was ready for first production.

The only greenfield oil refinery coming on stream in China this year, Shenghong's daily processing capacity equals to roughly 3% of the country's total crude oil imports.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; editing by Jason Neely)