Yanchang Petroleum’s PP, MTBE units start commercial ops

GUANGZHOU (ICIS news)--China’s Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co Ltd started commercial operations at its new 200,000 tonne/year polypropylene and 120,000 tonne/year methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) units in late August, a company source said on Thursday.

Trial runs at the units in Yangzhuanghe commenced in early July, the source said.

The units are part of the first phase of the company’s refining and chemical complex in China's northwestern province of Shaanxi.

Commercial operations of the 200,000 tonne/year aromatic extraction unit, the 1.2m tonne/year continuous reformer, the 1.4m tonne/year diesel hydrogenation unit and the 600,000 tonne/year gas fractionation unit at the site also started late last month, the source added.

The first phase of the project cost around yuan (CNY) 4.8bn ($703m) to build, Yanchang Petroleum's planning department said.

The second phase of the project will require CNY1.6bn investments. This will cover the cost of building a styrene unit, a polystyrene unit and a ethylbenzene plant, each with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes/year. All three plants were expected to come on stream in October 2010, the company said in April.

The company also operates a 60,000 tonne/year MTBE plant and a 100,000 tonne/year PP plant at Yan’an city in Shaanxi province.