Aramco to start up China polyolefins JV in April

23 July 2008 04:50  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Aramco will start up its joint venture (JV) polyolefins plants in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China in April 2009 as scheduled, a company source said on Wednesday.

"The polyolefins plants are scheduled to be commissioned in April and the integrated cracker will be started up in the middle of next year," the source added.

The facilities, consisting of two polyethylene (PE) plants each with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year and a 470,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant would source ethylene and propylene feedstocks from Sinopec, the local joint venture partner before the integrated 800,000 tonne/year cracker came on stream, he said.

The new plants would be operated by the joint venture Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co (FREP), with two other partners - state-run Sinopec Fujian and US oil major ExxonMobil.

The JV also includes a 12m tonne/year capacity refinery and an aromatics facility that will produce 700,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX) and 300,000 tonnes/year of benzene, which are scheduled to start up at the end of this year, the source added.

Petrochemical major Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) will market Saudi Aramco’s 25% share of polyolefins from the joint venture, which would amount to around 320,000 tonnes/year under a recent agreement.

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By: Chow Bee Lin
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