MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Hengyi Petrochemical Co Ltd is operating its new 160,000 barrels per day refinery in Brunei at near full capacity after trial production began in July, two company officials told Reuters.
The plant in Palau Muara Besar is one of four greenfield refineries to begin operations in Asia in 2019. The project includes a one million tonne per year (tpy) aromatics plant and a 500,000-tpy benzene unit.
"Hengyi’s Brunei project is running at almost full capacity," a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Earlier this week, a Hengyi executive told Reuters that exports of refined fuels from the plant, including gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have been running smoothly.
"Almost all of our LPG exports went to the Philippines due to its geographic proximity. Indonesia is the main client for our gasoline shipments and diesel moved in the region, including Australia," said the executive.
Hengyi’s aviation fuel landed in destinations like Hong Kong and even as far as the west coast of the United States, the executive said, with specifying the volumes of each product.
The company has said the plant will produce nearly a combined 6 million tonnes of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel a year.
As MRC informed earlier, in November 2019, Hengyi Petrochemical Co Ltd, a joint petrochemical venture between China and Brunei, exported its first cargo of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from its newly commissioned refinery in Brunei.
As MRC wrote previously, in September Hengyi Industries produced qualified petrochemical (PC) products at its new refinery and petrochemical complex at Pulau Muara Besar in Brunei. The project includes a 160,000 barrels/d crude oil refinery, a 1 M tonnes/y aromatics facility and a 500,000 tonnes/y benzene unit.
Paraxylene is a raw material for the synthesis of terephthalic acid (TFA) - an intermediate for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
As per MRC ScanPlast, imports of PET chips into Russia increased by 13% in eleven months of this year compared to the same time a year ago and reached 130,800 tonnes compared to 116,100 tonnes (excluding supplies from Belarus over the past two months). Russia's PET imports almost doubled to 12,300 tonnes in November against 6,300 tonnes in October; last November, material imports amounted to 8,200 tonnes. The share of Chinese material was 78% (9,600 tonnes) in November versus 92% (5,800 tonnes) a month earlier.
Hengyi Industries is a joint venture between China's Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Damai Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary under the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund. They own 70% and 30% of the shares respectively.
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