Sinopec Engineering Group awarded EPC deal for US$3.1 bln coal-to-petrochemicals plant

27-Dec-13

Sinopec Engineering Group has entered into a deal to build a US$3.1 bln plant in northern China to turn coal into petrochemicals, as China seeks to reduce its reliance on petrochemical imports, as per Reuters. Sinopec Engineering will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction of the 18.67 billion-yuan project in Inner Mongolia, which it said would be the largest of its kind in the world. The plant will produce 3.6 mln tpa of olefins - mostly ethylene. China, the world's biggest net importer of oil, is a leading buyer of petrochemicals, and imports about 45% of its ethylene. Sinopec Engineering, a newly listed unit of state-run Sinopec Group, said it would deploy a self-developed technology to make olefins from methanol, which can be extracted from coal. The coal-based process is cost competitive versus China's conventional way of making petrochemicals from more costly naphtha, a refinery product processed from crude oil.