Exxon sets up largest integrated site in Jurong

06 November 2007 05:25  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Singapore will be home to ExxonMobil’s largest integrated site in the world when the US energy major’s new world-scale steam cracker complex is completed in 2011, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

“When this plant is completed in 2011, the Singapore complex will be ExxonMobil’s largest owned and operated chemical plant,” Kwa Chong Seng, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, said.

“Add to this our 605,000 bbls/day refinery, we will have in Singapore the largest integrated manufacturing site within the ExxonMobil circuit”

Kwa was addressing guests at the groundbreaking ceremony of the chemical complex on Jurong Island.

ExxonMobil currently has facilities at two sites in Singapore processing 605,000 bbl/day of crude into fuels and feedstock for the company’s chemical plants and customers.

The refinery also manufactures industrial and automotive lubricants.

The company will be producing close to 2m tonnes of ethylene per year when the project is completed - almost half of Singapore’s total projected ethylene capacity, Kwa said.

“When both the ExxonMobil and Shell crackers come on stream, Singapore’s total ethylene output will double to 4m tonnes/year,” said Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien-Loong, at the ceremony.

Rival Anglo-Dutch energy major Shell is also building an 800,000 tonnes/year ethylene cracker on Jurong Island, and is scheduled to start-up in 2009/2010.

When completed, the facility, called Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC), will also include a 750,000 tonnes/year mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island using Shell’s proprietary technology.

The critical mass of ethylene will allow Singapore to move up the value chain from producing commodities to specialities, and distinguish itself from other chemical producing regions such as China and the Middle East, Lee said.

The output of Singapore’s chemical cluster is now at Singapore dollar (S$) 74bn ($51bn), surpassing that of the electronics cluster, he added.

Meanwhile, the new Singapore mega facility will employ ExxonMobil’s latest proprietary technology and will have the capability to process a broad range of feedstock and convert them into higher value products, Kwa said.

In addition, the technology to produce high-end petrochemicals and specialty chemicals will be used for the first time by ExxonMobil in Asia, he said.

“Currently there are over 2,200 people on the project team in seven locations. Going forward, we will need to recruit another 400 people to fill the plant and business positions,” he added.

($1 = S$1.45)

Florence Tan contributed to this article.

By: Jeanne Lim
+65 6780 4359

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