Sinopec Corp’s Jinling refinery in the eastern province of Jiangsu produced its first cargo of low-sulphur marine fuel of 4,200 tonnes, the state oil and gas group said on Tuesday.

* The Sinopec statement did not give further details, but a refinery executive told Reuters the fuel meets the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) emission standards, with sulphur content lower than 0.5 percent

* The plant becomes one of China’s first refineries making marine fuel able to meet the IMO specifications, following Sinopec subsidiaries such as Shanghai Petrochemical Corp and the refinery in Hainan that rolled out pilot productions in small qualities.

* IMO will ban ships from using fuel oil with a sulphur content above 0.5 percent, compared with 3.5 percent now, unless they are equipped with exhaust “scrubbers” to clean up sulphur emissions, starting in 2020.