Sinopec, Saudi Basic Industries build ethylene plant in Tianjin

Nov. 5, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Sinopec<600028><0386><SNP> and Saudi Basic Industries Corp or SABIC on Tuesday inaugurated an RMB 18.3-billion ethylene project in Tianjin, sources reported.

According to the plan, the two firms have set up a 50:50 joint venture called Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co Ltd to develop the project, which comprises a 1-million-ton ethylene cracker and eight downstream facilities. The complex has been tested and is expected to go into operation by the first quarter of next year.

SABIC will supply about 10 million tons of crude oil per year to the project. The complex will produce 3.2 million tons of chemicals per year: 1 million tons of ethylene and 2.2 million tons of downstream products such as polyethylene, ethylene glycol, polypropylene, butadiene, phenol and butene-1.

Wang Tianpu, general manager of Sinopec, said that the enterprise will have a crude oil processing capacity of up to 200 million tons this year and that it intends to enlarge refining business, mainly in Shanghai, Yangzi, Jinling, Shijiazhuang, Changling, Maoming and Anqing.