ExxonMobil to complete new Singapore halobutyl unit in 2017

Interview article by Nurluqman Suratman

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–ExxonMobil’s new 140,000 tonnes/year halobutyl unit at Jurong Island in Singapore is scheduled for mechanical completion in 2017 amid growing demand for the material in Asia, a senior company executive said on Tuesday.

“I would expect the second half [of 2017] is a more likely scenario [for project completion],” said Neil Chapman, senior vice president at ExxonMobil Chemical Co.

“Our expectations would be that we could start up, get prime product very quickly after mechanical completion…To give a timeframe would probably not be the right approach but certainly within a few months following mechanical completion we would expect it [commercial production],” he said at the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for the project.

The project will also include a new 90,000 tonne/year hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin production unit, which will be the world’s largest, Chapman said.

Japan’s Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co (MES) will build the two plants that will utilise proprietary ExxonMobil technology, he said.

ExxonMobil declined to comment on the financial details of the project.

Worldwide demand for halobutyl rubber remains strong, and is expected to see an annual growth rate of about 5% in the foreseeable future, Chapman said.

Output from the two new production units will be “ really focused on the Asian market”, he said.

“This is a high-growth product and typically, we see tyre demand and halobutyl demand growing at around 5% per year [globally] and this is driven by the increased number of cars on the road,” Chapman said.

“All the growth is in the emerging region and of course the biggest emerging region is China,” he added.

According to ExxonMobil’s Energy Outlook report, the global number of cars and light trucks would double by 2040 to 1.7bn units, and this will support much of the demand growth for halobutyl rubber.

ExxonMobil currently operates two halobutyl production facilities in the US, one in the UK and another in Japan via a joint venture with JSR Corp, according to Chapman.

Capacity details of these facilities were not immediately available.

The US chemicals giant is also currently building a new world-scale elastomers facility in Saudi Arabia via Al-Jubail Petrochemical Co (Kemya) – a joint venture between ExxonMobil and SABIC.

The Kemya elastomers project – which is expected to house synthetic rubbers, polyolefin elastomers and carbon black units – will have a total capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year, including 110,000 tonnes/year of halobutyl rubber capacity. It is due for mechanical completion by the end of next year, he said.

ExxonMobil has no firm plans to expand its halobutyl production capacity beyond those in Saudi Arabia and Singapore, Chapman said.

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections