FREP sells spot ethylene due to PE line outage-source

25 September 2009 09:37  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Fujian Refining and Petrochemical has sold a 3,000-tonne ethylene spot parcel for first half October lifting due to an outage at its downstream polyethylene line, a source close to the company said on Friday.

The cargo was expected to be headed to southeast Asia and the deal was done linked to a formula and not on a fixed price basis, he added.

Other market sources said Fujian could export a total of 5,000-6,000 tonnes of ethylene next month, with another parcel heard under discussion on Friday.

FREP started up its 800,000 tonne/year naphtha cracker in Quanzhou, in August – the first new facility to come on stream in China this year.

The company has two polyethylene (PE) facilities at the same site, consisting of a 400,000 tonne/year high density PE (HDPE) line and a 400,000 tonne/year linear low density PE/high density PE (LLDPE/HDPE) swing plant. It was not immediately known which one was taken off line.

However, the HDPE plant had been running intermittently until last week, a source close to the company said.

Local residents had staged protests as they were concerned about the environmental impact of the plant, sources said.

“We heard the protesters were concerned about potential pollution because waste water from the complex was injected 30-50m under the sea, failing to reach the originally planned depth of 80m,” one of the local traders said.

Company officials could not be reached for comment.

FREP is a joint venture between ExxonMobil (25%), Saudi Aramco (25%) and Fujian Petrochemical (50%).

Fujian Petrochemical is a 50:50 joint venture between the Fujian provincial government and Chinese energy major Sinopec.

Chow Bee Lin and Steve Tan contributed to the story

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By: Peh Soo Hwee
+65 6780 4359

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