MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. oil and gas major ExxonMobil announced it had made a final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar petrochemical complex in south China's Guangdong province, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The firm did not specify a value for this investment. The decision, announced late on Monday, came nearly 18 mos after China's state news agency Xinhua reported in April last yr that the U.S. firm kicked off construction of the USD10 B venture in Dayawan in Huizhou city.
One of the few petrochemical complexes in China that are wholly owned by a foreign investor, ExxonMobil said the Dayawan plant will produce performance polymers used in packaging, automotive, agricultural, and consumer products for hygiene and personal care. China is the world's largest petrochemicals consumer and importer.
Construction is underway on the greenfield project, which includes a flexible feed steam cracker, three performance polyethylene lines, and two differentiated performance polypropylene lines, it added. The steam cracker will have a nameplate capacity of about 1.6 MM tons per yr.
Separately, ExxonMobil told Reuters in July that the firm was advancing project discussions with potential partners for an import terminal for liquefied natural gas also in Huizhou. The two projects are part of an initial agreement the U.S. firm signed with China in 2018.
ExxonMobil also owns a stake in a refinery and petrochemical complex in neighboring province of Fujian that is controlled by Chinese state refiner Sinopec Corp.
As per MRC, ExxonMobil plans to build its first, large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, and is expected to start operations by year-end 2022. By recycling plastic waste back into raw materials that can be used to make plastic and other valuable products, the technology could help address the challenge of plastic waste in the environment. A smaller, temporary facility, is already operational and producing commercial volumes of certified circular polymers that will be marketed by the end of this year to meet growing demand.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world"s oil and about 2% of the world"s energy.
MRC