PTT Global Chemical PCL (PTTGC) has let a contract to Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd., Seoul, for a recently approved project to expand olefins production capacity at PTTGC’s existing operations at Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Thailand’s Rayong Province, about 150 km southeast of Bangkok (OGJ Online, Jan. 23, 2017).
Alongside local Thai partner TTCL PCL, Samsung Engineering will deliver engineering, procurement, and construction of an olefins plant able to produce 500,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 250,000 tpy of propylene, the service provider said.
Samsung Engineering’s share of the 880-billion won EPC contract is valued at 670 billion won, the company said.
The contract follows PTTGC’s Jan. 23 approval of its Map Ta Phut Retrofit (MTPR) Olefins Reconfiguration project, which aims to increase feedstock flexibility, increase production at the site and reduce reliance on natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand by increasing use of the operator’s internal naphtha and LPG feedstock from refining and aromatics units or, alternatively, enabling imports of less-expensive feedstock from abroad.
Scheduled to begin commercial operation sometime in 2020, the olefins plant will use a main feedstock of naphtha and LPG sourced predominantly from PTTGC’s refining and aromatics units at the site.
Once completed, the MTPR Olefins Reconfiguration project will increase PTTGC’s overall olefins nameplate capacity at Map Ta Phut to 3.738 million tpy from 2.988 million tpy.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
