CNOOC keeps aromatics shut on low feedstock

27 August 2008 08:53 [Source: ICIS news]

By Dolly Wu and Judith Wang

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has kept its aromatics unit at Huizhou city in southern Guangdong province shut on ongoing pyrolysis gas (pygas) feedstock shortages and weak downstream demand, a source close to the company said on Wednesday.

CNOOC had shut down the aromatics unit on 11 August for maintenance due to intermittent feedstock supply from CNOOC-Shell, also located in Huizhou. The original restart was slated for 25 August after a 15-day turnaround.

But CNOOC had to continue to suspend production because CNOOC-Shell was still not able to ensure stable feedstock supplies, said a source from the Huizhou site.

“We still shut down the aromatics due to the feedstock shortage from CNOOC-Shell, and the restart date has not [been]fixed,” the source added.

A source from CNOOC-Shell said the low operating rate of its cracker caused the insufficient feedstock supply to CNOOC's aromatics unit.

“The operating rate of our cracker is very low,” the source added. "I heard some derivative downstream plants including those of a PP [polypropylene] plant have shut down due to a scheduled maintenance."

The company will upgrade operating rates gradually, said the source.

CNOOC-Shell had received a local government security notice about the threat of Typhoon Nuri, which hit areas of southern China over the weekend, “so we cut down the operation rate on safety issues”, he said.

The Huizhou aromatics plant produces 120,000 tonnes/year of toluene and 100,000 tonnes/year of xylene.

Cissy Hu, Ellen Huang and Piyo Yang from CBI contributed to this article
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By: Dolly Wu
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