MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's Idemitsu Kosan is in plans shut its naphtha cracker for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the cracker is expected to be taken off-line for maintenance on September 20, 2017. The shutdown is likely to remain in force until end-October 2016.
Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 375,000 mt/year.
As MRC reported before, Idemitsu Kosan said in late November 2016 that its JV with Mitsui Chemicals would conduct work to expand the processing of propane at Idemitsu's naphtha cracker to take advantage of cheap liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices. The work will be carried out in autumn 2017 and last about a month, during which time the cracker will be shut. The upgrade will boost the cracker's capacity to process propane as feedstock by three or four times, said Hideki Gotoh, deputy general manager of Idemitsu's petrochemical business. He added that Idemitsu would pay the costs for the upgrade, without giving a figure. The benefit from boosting propane and cutting naphtha as feedstock is set to lead to cost cuts of around USD8.90 million a year, the company spokeswoman said then.
Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC