Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 30 -- South Korea's SK Energy Co. plans to build a 40,000 b/d diesel-producing hydrocracking unit at its refinery in the port city of Inchon, 40 km west of Seoul. The unit will process heavy oil into transportation fuel.
The project aims to increase exports of lighter, higher-value products to China and Southeast Asia. The new unit will produce naphtha, diesel, and kerosine using low-priced bunker-C fuel as feedstock.
SK Energy said construction on the unit, expected to cost 1.5 trillion won, is scheduled to start in June, with commercial production to go online in June 2011.
The facility will eventually increase SK Energy's overall heavy oil-processing capacity to 202,000 b/d from the current 162,000 b/d. It also will expand the ratio of SK Energy's heavy-oil processing facilities to overall refining ones to 17.6% from the current 14.5%.
In March, SK Energy completed construction of a residual fluid catalytic cracker at its 840,000 b/d refinery in Ulsan, 414 km southeast of Seoul.
The 60,000 b/d capacity unit is set to launch operations in June, when SK Energy will be operating three RFCCs with a combined capacity of 162,000 b/d.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
