PetroChina may delay Sichuan project beyond 2010

21 August 2008 06:05  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--PetroChina’s plans to start up a refinery, cracker and aromatics complex at Pengzhou in western Sichuan province may see a delay from the original date of 2010, due to the earthquake in May, company sources and other sources close to the project said on Thursday.

"The construction of the facility has been halted, due to the earthquake and PetroChina has sent a team to survey the location to assess the site before deciding whether to continue the work," said a PetroChina source.

The proposed complex would produce up to 600,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX) and 350,000 tonnes/year of benzene, and would have an 800,000 tonne/year naphtha cracking facility.

The integrated refinery would process 2.2m tonnes/year of heavy gas oil from crude oil and convert it to more usable products such as diesel, kerosene, and naphtha.

The project, which was estimated to cost around CNY38bn ($5.54bn) and would be located next to PetroChina’s existing units at Pengzhou within the provincial capital of Chengdu, was originally slated to come onstream in 2010.

"Now, it seems the delay could be at least another one or two years," said a source close to the project.

Proposed units downstream of the complex will produce polyethylene (PE), monoethylene glycol (MEG), oxo-alcohols, acrylic acid and acrylates, butyl rubber (BR), phenol/acetone and bisphenol A (BPA).

PetroChina has a 51% stake in the project while Chengdu Petrochemical, the local government’s investment vehicle, holds the remainder.

($1 = CNY6.86)

Judith Wang and Dolly Wu of CBI China and Leon Toh contributed to this article

By: Salmon Aidan Lee
+65 6780 4359

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