Shell 'conservative' over licensing its MEG process technology

04 May 2010 11:13  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Shell Chemicals will be "very conservative" in deciding whether to further license its OMEGA monoethylene glycol (MEG) technology, executive vice president Ben van Beurden said on Tuesday.

“I won’t say never [about further licensing] but down the road this is likely to be a Shell-only technology and one for us and our joint-venture partners,” added van Beurden, who was speaking on the sidelines of the official opening of Shell Chemicals’ Singapore cracker complex.

But he stressed that the two existing licensing agreements for the technology had been highly successful.

“Our existing licensors have been our pathfinders if you like,” he said.

They are Lotte Petrochemicals at Daesan in South Korea and the Saudi Aramco-Sumitomo Chemical joint venture, PetroRabigh, in Saudi Arabia.

Both of these plants are now on-stream and Shell Chemicals officially opened its 750,000 tonne/year OMEGA plant in Singapore last November. It was also evaluating adding a further plant as part of its cracker project in Qatar.

OMEGA processing consumes less steam and less wastewater than conventional technology, with capital cost for a new plant around 10% less, according to Shell.

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By: John Richardson
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