MOSCOW (MRC) -- CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co., Ltd (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) have announced the start-up by their 50:50 joint venture, CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company (CSPC), of new units to supply the Chinese market with essential petrochemicals, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
One new unit is the largest of its type in China, producing up to 630,000 tonnes per year of styrene monomer (SM)and 300,000 tonnes per year of propylene oxide (PO).
These chemicals are used in a wide range of applications, from household appliances to packaging and computers. The unit is also highly efficient. By using the Shell Group’s own SMPO process technology and making design improvements, it uses significantly less energy. It is the second unit of its kind built at the petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China, which is operated by CSPC.
Three further new units process PO into up to 600,000 tonnes per year of polyols, deploying the Shell Group’s advanced polyols technologies for the first time in China. They supply customers with a range of polyols, including performance products for specialised uses such as coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers, and foams used in bedding, furniture and cars.
The start-up of the new units completes a successful ‘phase two’ expansion of the CSPC complex and follows the commissioning of a second ethylene cracker in 2018. The complex now supplies customers with up to six million tonnes per year of diverse, high-quality intermediate and performance chemicals, including polyols, ethylene glycol, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
Plans are already being made for a third phase of expansion at the site. CNOOC, Shell and the Huizhou Government signed a strategic cooperation agreement in May 2020. The third phase would involve building a third ethylene cracker and deploying the Shell Group’s advanced technology for linear alpha olefins for the first time in Asia.
Shell and CNOOC also announced a Memorandum of Understanding in 2020, to explore a commercial-scale polycarbonate (PC) production unit at the site, using the Shell Group’s diphenyl carbonate process technology.
As MRC reported earlier, in May 2018, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) announced the official start-up of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China. The new ethylene cracker increases ethylene capacity at the complex by around 1.2 million tonnes per year, more than doubling the capacity of the complex, and benefits from a deep integration with adjacent CNOOC refineries.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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