"Final preparations are being made for start-up," CNOOC and Anglo-Dutch Shell said in separate statements. Production would begin in the first quarter. Work at the biggest joint venture project in China started in November 2002. The $4.3 billion project is a joint investment by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Royal Dutch Shell and Guangdong.
After start-up, the plant will manufacture 2.3 million tonnes of petrochemical products to be supplied to markets in Guangdong Province and Southeast Coastal China where demand for these products is strong.
"The construction ... has been completed within the expected schedule and budget," Shell said.
The Daya Bay project is key to Shell's aim to have a significant presence in China, where demand for plastics and packaging is expected to make up 30 percent of world consumption by 2010.
Shell is the world's third-largest listed oil firm by market value. It merged its two formal parents in 2005, aiming to restore confidence after a reserves overbooking scandal a year earlier.
The overbooking was blamed in part on the company's complicated management and ownership structure at the time.