Seven Steam-Cracking Furnaces Arrive at ExxonMobil's Singapore Petrochemical Complex

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--ExxonMobil Chemical Company (Houston, Texas), a subsidiary of global petrochemical specialist ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), announced that seven world-scale, steam-cracking furnaces have arrived at the company's largest integrated chemical and refining complex in Singapore. This is an important milestone for the upcoming cracker project.

The world's largest steam-cracking furnace modules are part of ExxonMobil's new feed-flexible cracker plant on Jurong Island, an artificial island situated southwest of the main island of Singapore. The cracker plant is designed to deliver 1 million tons per year of ethylene, using different feedstock such as heavy feeds and naphtha.

Each furnace is about 50 meters tall and weighs more than 2,000 tons. The furnaces will operate using ExxonMobil's proprietary furnace technology, and were built in Japan and France by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Company Limited (TYO:7003) (Tokyo, Japan) and Heurtey Petrochemical S.A. (EPA:ALHPC) (Vincennes, France). It took 19 months to engineer the furnaces that were completed in late 2008. A special heavy-lift and semi-submersible transport vessel, MV Rolldock Sun, was used to transport the seven modules from Sattahip in Thailand to Singapore.

In addition to the cracker unit, ExxonMobil's new integrated petrochemical facility will house other derivative units, including a 450,000-ton-per-year polypropylene unit; two 650,000-ton-per-year polyethylene units; an aromatics extraction unit that will produce 340,000 tons per year of benzene; a 300,000-tons-per-year specialty elastomers unit, including its Vistamaxx propylene-based elastomer; an 80,000-ton-per-year paraxylene unit; and a 125,000-ton-per-year oxo-alcohol unit.

The upcoming project is ExxonMobil's second petrochemical complex on Jurong Island, and construction is on schedule. The plant is set to begin operations by late 2010 or early 2011. Engineers and contractors from more than 30 countries and six continents have been involved in this project since work began in 2007. The products from the complex will cater to the growing demand for plastics in the Asia-Pacific region.

The complex is an expansion of ExxonMobil's existing integrated refining and chemical production facility on Jurong Island, which was brought online in 2001. The refinery processes about 605,000 barrels of crude per day into various fuels and feedstock for chemical plants. The $2 billion Singapore Chemical Plant at the site currently has five integrated units that are capable of producing 435,000 tons per year of propylene; 900,000 tons per year of ethylene; 480,000 tons per year of polyethylene; and 315,000 tons per year of polypropylene. The chemical plant is fully integrated with ExxonMobil's two refineries in Singapore.

ExxonMobil's cracker unit will be the fifth of its kind in Singapore. On March 22, Shell Chemicals Limited (London, England) commissioned a $4.6 billion naphtha-fed steam cracker unit on Jurong Island. The Shell plant is capable of producing 800,000 tons per year of ethylene and 450,000 tons per year of propylene, using naphtha as the feedstock. The naphtha is sourced from Shell's refinery at Pulau Bukom.

Singapore's ethylene output is expected to touch 4 million tons a year once ExxonMobil's plant is commissioned.

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