Exxon Mobil Petrochemical Complex, Jurong Island, Singapore

Exxon Mobile is set to become the largest petrochemicals company operating in Singapore. The company already has a 605,000 barrel per day refinery operating on Jurong Island as well as an existing petrochemical plant (completed in 2001 at a cost of $2bn) with the capacity to produce 800,000t per year of ethylene and includes downstream plants to produce polyethylene and polypropylene.

The new plant is a multi-billion dollar project which broke ground in November 2007 (the final investment decision was made in September 2007) and is scheduled to be completed by early 2011. The new petrochemical complex will be fully integrated with the existing refinery.

The combination of the two petrochemical plants will make Singapore one of the largest chemical-producing hubs in the world. The new plant will require an additional 400 workers when it comes on-stream and during the construction phase 10,000 personnel will be involved.

PLANT PRODUCTION

The plant will consist of eight chemical-producing units with the ability to produce a range of basic petrochemicals. It will also incorporate units to produce value-added products from these chemicals for export to nearby expanding markets such as China.

There will be a 1 million ton per year ethylene steam cracker, there will be two 650,000t per year polyethylene units, a 450,000t per year polypropylene unit, a 300,000t per year speciality elastomers unit, 340,000tper year of benzene from an aromatics unit, a 125,000t oxo-alcohol unit expansion, a 80,000t per year paraxylene expansion and a 220MW power cogeneration unit.

HIGHER VALUE PRODUCTS

The project will make full use of existing ExxonMobil proprietary technologies to process a number of basic feedstocks into higher-value end-products. The speciality elastomers unit will produce the new metallocene-based Vistamaxx speciality elastomers for use in speciality films and polymer modification.

The speciality elastomers unit will be able to produce a range of products, including Exact plastomers, used in a variety of industries such as automotive, consumer and construction.

The first of two polyethylene units will produce metallocene-based polyethylene resins, including Exceed for the production of high quality film for export.

The infrastructure at the plant will include finishing, packaging and shipping facilities. The combination of the original facility and the new facility will give Exxon Mobile the capability of manufacturing over 2 million tons of polyethylene per year.

CONTRACTORS

Exxon Mobile has awarded a number of contracts for different components of the plant. The steam cracker recovery unit and power cogeneration unit design, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to The Shaw Group. The steam cracker furnaces EPC contract was awarded to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and Heurtey Petrochem.

The EPC contract for the polypropylene unit and the speciality elastomers unit was awarded to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd. The EPC for the two polyethylene units was awarded to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries who are also responsible for the polyolefins finishing, packaging and shipping part of the project. The project coordination and services, and infrastructure EPC contract was awarded to Foster Wheeler and WorleyParsons. The process control and instrumentation contract was awarded to Mustang Engineering.