HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s SK Group is considering starting an oil refinery project in southern China, officials said Thursday, a move that would expand the company’s business in the world’s No. 2 economy.

The city of Qinzhou is a potential site of the project, and located near the Pearl River Delta, the main hub of China’s economic growth. The city also established a Free Trade Port Area, which was approved by the State Council in May 2008 as a state-level free trade port area. The Qinzhou FTPA has pillar industries such as energy, paper, metallurgy, grain and oil processing.

According to Qinzhou city officials, the municipal committee of Qinzhou and SK Group recently reached a broad consensus to examine opportunities for cooperative projects in the southern Chinese city, especially in the petrochemical industry.

“SK Group has always prioritized exchange and cooperation with Qinzhou. We hope that our advanced, environmentally-friendly technology can contribute to Qinzhou City,” Han Ki-moon, senior vice president of SK China Co., was quoted as saying.

“SK Group will set up a working group to complete the project’s feasibility study as soon as possible, and following (positive) study results, we plan to quickly move ahead with the project,” he added.

SK China Co., the Chinese subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate, was launched in July 2010 to control SK Group affiliates in China, engaging in business sectors including new energy, petrochemicals, next generation information and communications technology, and urban development and environment.

The subsidiary said earlier it aims to post 86 billion yuan ($13.3 billion) in annual sales by 2015.

It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s state-run oil giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, to co-invest in a project based in the central city of Wuhan for the yearly production of 800,000 tons of ethylene.