Sinopec, BP to start trial operations at Shanghai

17-Mar-05

Sinopec Corp and British oil giant BP Plc will commence trial operations at the 900,000 tpa naphtha cracker in Shanghai. A trial run starts with downstream units, taking several months to reach normal operations. The US$2.7-billion Shanghai cracker, aims for maximised commercial runs by June. The project is expected to secure most of its close to 3 million tpa naphtha requirements from Chinese refineries. China- the world's largest importer of petrochemicals, is scrambling to meet double-digit demand growth. The commencement of this project marks the first and the largest of three foreign-funded mega ethylene complexes totalling nearly US$10 billion that China is building. The second cracker to come onstream in coming weeks would be the US$2.9 billion, 600,000-tpa plant in the eastern city of Nanjing, a joint-venture between Sinopec Corp and German chemical major BASF. The third project, a JV between Royal/Dutch Shell and China National Offshore Company (CNOOC) is expected to start up their equally owned 800,000 tpa Nanhai project by the end of this year.