Shell on Track with Construction of Petrochemical Complex in Singapore

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC), Royal Dutch Shell's (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, the Netherlands) largest investment in Singapore, will include a new world-scale ethylene cracker on Pulau Bukom Island and possibly the world's largest monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island. The integrated refining and petrochemical complex will be integrated with the existing Shell Bukom Refinery. The MEG plant will be connected to the cracker by pipeline.

Construction of the complex began in October 2006 and the complex looks set to begin operation, as scheduled, in 2009-10. When completed, the SEPC will serve as a crucial provider of raw materials to the Asian region.

The tallest column of the SEPC is the 107-meter propylene fractionation column. The 1,000-ton column was successfully installed in Pulao Bukom a month ago. The tower's height is equivalent to a 30-story building, while its weight is equivalent to four empty Airbus A380s. The crane used to lift the tower was a specially designed platform twin ring containerized crane. With a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons, it is the first of its kind in Singapore.

Unlike most other crackers in the Asian region, which use naphtha as feedstock, the new cracker will be able to handle a variety of heavy liquids. The products of the new facility will be delivered through existing undersea pipelines to major customers and existing or planned joint venture derivative plants on Jurong Island. About 50% of the ethylene produced is for captive use, with the MEG plant being the major consumer.

The main products of the SEPC will include:

• Ethylene: 800,000 tons per year
• Propylene: 450,000 tons per year
• Butadiene: 155,000 tons per year
• Benzene: 230,000 tons per year
• MEG: 750,000 tons per year

The MEG produced will be exported to neighboring countries, with China being a major market. With the completion of the SEPC, Singapore's ethylene capacity will be almost doubled, and Shell will become the third largest producer of MEG.

The key contractors of the project are ABB Lummus/Toyo and Foster Wheeler Limited (NASDAQ:FWLT) (Clinton, New Jersey). In 2005, the joint venture between ABB Lummus Global B.V. (The Hague) and Toyo Engineering Corporation (TYO:6330) (Chiyoda, Tokyo) was awarded a contract to prepare and implement the basic design and engineering package (BDEP) for the cracker plant. The ethylene cracker design is based on ABB Lummus' proprietary ethylene cracking technology.

ABB Lummus was also awarded the contract to prepare and implement the BDEP of the butadiene extraction unit. It will use the proprietary technology of ABB Lummus Global/BASF. Low operating costs and high-purity butadiene are the hallmarks of this technology, which uses N-methylpyrrolidone as a solvent.

In 2006, Foster Wheeler's UK subsidiary, Foster Wheeler Energy Limited (Reading, Great Britain), was awarded a contract to prepare and implement the BDEP of the ethylene oxide (EO)/MEG plant, which will use Shell's proprietary Omega technology. The Omega process combines a high-selectivity catalyst for converting ethylene to EO, with a catalytic process to convert EO to glycol. The process achieves the industry's lowest consumption of ethylene per ton of MEG. The final product will be produced using the catalytic glycol production technology developed by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Minato, Tokyo).

Foster Wheeler's Singapore subsidiary, Foster Wheeler Eastern Private Limited, was awarded a contract to prepare the BDEP of the Bukom Refinery modification project. The project includes a revamping of the existing units and the addition of new sulfur recovery and vacuum units, revamped and new tank facilities, along with other interconnections and tie-ins.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (TYO:6841) (Tokyo, Japan) is the automation vendor for the SEPC and the refinery upgrade project.

Shell's strategy is to grow where the market is growing. The company is committed to increasing investments in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The SEPC is an example of the company's "Grow East" strategy.

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