Dushanzi Integrated Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China

With China becoming more and more a net user of crude oil to produce fuels and chemicals for its growing manufacturing base, Petrochina is working to provide more domestic facilities to refine crude oil, to make the country less dependent on imports of chemical raw materials.

The National Development and Reform Commission in China intends to have 90 million tons of new oil processing capacity in China by 2010. One of these projects is the Dushanzi oil refining and ethylene project in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of northwestern China. It is the largest investment to date.

This facility is being developed (there is an existing facility on site) by Dushanzi Petrochemical Corp, which is a subsidiary of PetroChina Co, to refine crude oil received from Kazakhstan via the 1,200km Kazakhstan-China crude oil pipeline, which opened in 2006.

The investment into the refinery project has so far come to around $4bn (RMB30bn). The new refinery units have been under construction since the second half of 2005 and should have been started up in November 2008. However, the project was delayed by about a year because of a hold up on some equipment that was ordered for the plant. Commercial operations at the plant finally started in September 2009.

The project

The new refinery on the existing site involves the construction of 20 refining process units and 12 petrochemical process units. The 12 petrochemical plants comprise a 10mt/y distillation plant, a 2mt/y hydro-cracking unit, a 1mt/y ethylene plant, a 900kt/y polyethylene plant and a 550kt/y polypropylene plant.

It will be able to process 10 million tons of crude oil per year (200,000 barrels per day) and produce 1.2 million tons of ethylene per year, as well as a range of fuels and other refinery products that can be converted into valuable petrochemicals. The polyethylene plant and polypropylene plant use polymer technology licensed from INEOS Technologies.

The main instrumentation provider for the new refinery will be Emerson Process Management. Emerson is providing a range of its process control technology for the refinery and petrochemical complex.

The technology includes more than 25,000 Rosemount instruments, with around 2,500 Fieldvue DVC6000 HART smart positioners (to aid in the management of control valves to improve efficiency), 2,000 Fisher control valves and more than 400 Micro Motion Coriolis meters. Emerson will allow the plant to be one of the most efficient in China because of the digital control systems.

The new plant uses the UNIPOL PE process provided by Univation Technologies for the polyethylene plant. The refinery is the first in China to use Univation's single reactor bimodal technology for high-density film. It is also the second PetroChina plant employing Univation's metallocene catalyst technology to manufacture metallocene linear low-density polyethylene.

Other contractors

AMEC has been awarded two contracts for work on the refinery. The first of these, in August 2005, was for the provision of consultancy services for project management, engineering, planning, cost management, safety, health and environment and quality assurance and also the use of AMEC's Convero project management software.

The second contract awarded to AMEC in May 2007 was a role as the integrated project management team (IPMT) contractor for the management of safety, health and environmental and quality assurance and control at the refinery.

In addition to this, Universal Technology was awarded a $10m contract in April 2007 by China Petroleum Material & Equipment Corporation to provide laboratory testing instruments for the refinery's central laboratory. The equipment will include testing equipment for physical/mechanical properties, as well as petrochemicals testing and refinery equipment.

Invensys Systems was also awarded a contract in January 2007 by the Dushanzi Petrochemical Corp for the provision of operator training simulator equipment for the refinery.

In January 2007, RAE Systems was awarded a contract worth $2m to supply fixed toxic and combustible gas detection equipment. RAE provided a 1,600-point combustible and toxic gas detection system and field services and technical assistance in 2007 and 2008. RAE was also given the contract to supply gas monitors and personal protection equipment.

Fixed gas detection systems supplied by RAE contains several sensor heads linked to a programmable logic controller and power lines via an explosion-proof conduit. The systems are versatile and can instantly activate alarms, ventilation, fire suppression and safety lights.

Zhenjiang Klockner-Moeller Electrical Systems won a $12m (RMB100m) contract to supply low-voltage products for the refinery.

In May 2007, GE Sensing was awarded a three-year purchase contract worth more than $3m to supply ultrasonic flow meters, moisture analysers and oxygen analysers for the refinery.

Aker Kvaerner was chosen in March 2007 to provide basic engineering design and offshore procurement services for the polypropylene plant.