ExxonMobil to acquire Singapore’s Jurong Aromatics Corp assets

Nurluqman Suratman

11-May-2017



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SINGAPORE (ICIS)–US energy major ExxonMobil has reached an agreement to acquire the assets of Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC) in Singapore, in a deal that will boost the energy giant’s paraxylene (PX) production capacity in the country to 1.8m tonnes/year.

ExxonMobil’s overall aromatics production in Singapore will increase to more than 3.5m tonnes/year, when the acquisition is completed in the second half of this year, the company said in a statement issued on Thurday.

JAC’s 1.4m tonne/year plant on Jurong Island “presents operational and logistical synergies for ExxonMobil’s integrated refining and petrochemical complex nearby,” ExxonMobil said.

The facility on Jurong Island can produce 800,000 tonnes/year of fibre intermediate feedstock paraxylene (PX); 438,000 tonnes/year of benzene; and 200,000 tonnes/year of orthoxylene at the site, according to JAC’s website.

ExxonMobil had said in end-April that it was negotiating with accounting firm Borrelli Walsh to acquire JAC’s assets.

JAC went into receivership in 2015 after debt-restructuring talks failed, with Borrelli Walsh subsequently appointed as  receiver of the firm’s aromatics facility.

Singapore is home to ExxonMobil’s largest integrated refining and petrochemical complex, which has a crude oil processing capacity of 592,000 bbl/day and includes two world-scale steam crackers.

“The company’s growth in Singapore is driven by the expected increase in global demand for chemical products over the next decade of nearly 45%, or about 4% per year, which is a faster pace than energy demand and economic growth,” ExxonMobil said.

“Nearly three-quarters of the increased demand is expected to be in Asia Pacific as a result of its rising prosperity and a growing middle class,” it said.

ExxonMobil is expected to start up its new 230,000 tonne/year specialty polymers facilities that will produce halobutyl rubber and performance resins for adhesive applications later this year, the company said.

Picture: ExxonMobil’s Singapore Chemical Plant on Jurong Island (Source: ExxonMobil)

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