Shell expands plans for Nanhai complex

01 July 1997 00:00  [Source: APC]

Anglo-Dutch Shell and its Chinese partners have amended their plans for a petrochemical complex in Nanhai, southern China. Shell had planned a US$6bn petrochemical complex with an output of 450 000 tonne/year of ethylene. The revised plan now puts the capacity of the complex at 800 000 tonne/year.

If the changes arc approved by China's State Council, construction could begin in 1998 with production onstream by 2003.

The original project's feasibility study was submitted in 1994 but never approved. One reason was that China had a surplus capacity of 60m tonne/year. However, the project has been amended to cater for the expected growth of China's ethylene market.

Jeremy Frearson, Hong Kong-based spokesman for Shell, said the first stage of the project in would require an investment of $4.5bn.

The project has been bedevilled by disputes between the Chinese partners, with Sinopec dropping out of the consortium.

Cao Yunshi, an official of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), was quoted in the Hong Kong media as saying it was is now the leading Chinese partner, joining China Merchants and the Guangdong provincial authorities. Shell will hold a 50% stake in the project.

Shell is eager to establish a strong foothold in the region, and, in addition to its proposed Guangdong plant, this week formed a joint venture with Keppel Integrated Engineering of Singapore and Suzhou Industrial Shell Park Administration Committee to build a $10m LPG facility in Suzhou.

* BP Chemicals is building a $2bn ethylene complex in Jinshan with Shanghai Petrochemical, while a US$3.5bn ethylene project at Nanjing, involving Germany's BASF and Sinopec Yangxi Petrochemical, is also under way.

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