Singapore Adds Another $2 Billion Cracker on Jurong Island

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A world-scale aromatics complex will start construction on Singapore's Jurong Island in 2008. The complex is scheduled for completion in 2011 and will have feedstock of natural gas and condensate for an annual production of 2.5 million tons of petroleum products and 1.5 million tons of aromatics.

The consortium building the $2 billion plant is led by Singapore-based Jurong Aromatics (JAC). About 60% of JAC is held by Jurong Energy Corporation (JEC) in which the majority is held by Houston-based Vinmar Group, a petrochemicals trader and distributor, and the Continental Chemical group with which JEC has joint directorships. The balance of 40% of JAC is held by a range of investors, including Swiss-based energy trader Glencore, South Korea's SK Energy, Kuwait's Noor Financial Investment Company and China's largest polyester producer, Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Industrial Group.

The aromatics product breakdown will include 800,000 tons per annum (TPA) of paraxylene, 200,000 TPA of ortho-xylene, 450,000 TPA of benzene and the 2.5 million TPA of petroleum products, including jet fuel and kerosene. Product will be sold to textile, electronics and plastics manufacturers and detergent and insecticide producers. JAC will build a front-end splitter to refine the condensate feedstock for the complex's use. JAC will use the $700 million Jurong Rock Cavern's underground oil and chemical caverns for storage. The cavern is now under construction.

The lump sum turnkey construction contract has been awarded by the consortium to Korea's SK Engineering and Construction, and the technology contract for the aromatics complex has been awarded to UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois), a Honeywell (NYSE:HON ) company, which will supply technology, basic engineering services and equipment. The new facility will feature a range of UOP technologies to produce low sulfur, clean fuels and high-quality aromatics. Among these will be the UOP Merox process and the UOP Distillate Unionfining processes to remove sulfur and upgrade distillate materials for the production of clean fuels. This is the third world-scale aromatics complex for paraxylene production that UOP has designed to be built in Singapore.

Singapore is consolidating its position as a major global energy and petrochemical hub. In March, Shell began constructing a $ 3 billion cracker, and in November, ExxonMobil will start construction on a $5 billion project. These two projects will give Singapore a total of five crackers that will produce a total of 4.1 million TPA of ethylene a year. This is equivalent to more than half the capacity of Japan.

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