Indonesian plant to expand ethylene capacity by 2020

July 10, 2017
PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), a subsidiary of PT Barito Pacific Tbk, Jakarta, has let a contract to CB&I, Houston, to supply materials for the planned revamp of existing furnaces at the naphtha cracker of its 860,000-tonne/year ethylene plant at Ciwandan, Cilegon, in Indonesia’s Banten province.

PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), a subsidiary of PT Barito Pacific Tbk, Jakarta, has let a contract to CB&I, Houston, to supply materials for the planned revamp of existing furnaces at the naphtha cracker of its 860,000-tonne/year ethylene plant at Ciwandan, Cilegon, in Indonesia’s Banten province.

The furnace revamp, which will expand ethylene production capacity at the site to 900,000 tpy, follows CAP’s previous contract award to CB&I for technology licensing, basic engineering, and detailed engineering on the project, the service company said.

CB&I disclosed neither the value nor duration of either contract.

Project details

Scheduled to begin construction in third-quarter 2018 for an estimated startup date in first-quarter 2020, the naphtha cracker revamp project comes as part of CAP’s program to expand olefins production capacity to serve Indonesia’s rising demand for petrochemical products, CAP said.

Alongside boosting ethylene output at the plant, the revamp also will increase CAP’s current production of derivatives as follows:

• Propylene to 490,000 tpy from 470,000 tpy.

• Pygas to 420,000 tpy from 400,000 tpy.

• Mixed C4s to 330,000 tpy from 315,000 tpy.

In 2016, CAP engaged Lummus Technology, a division of CB&I, to begin engineering works for the furnace revamp, which is due to reach mechanical completion by yearend 2019, the Indonesian operator said in its 2016 annual report.

The latest proposal to expand ethylene capacity of the Cilegon naphtha cracker follows CAP’s recent expansion of the plant in 2015.

Completed in December 2015 and fully commissioned during first-quarter 2016, that project increased the cracker’s ethylene output by about 43% to its current 860,000 tpy from a previous production capacity of 600,000 tpy.

Additional expansions

As part of the operator’s strategy to further integrate its downstream petrochemicals business by maximizing use of rising ethylene production, CAP also has let a contract Univation Technologies LLC, Houston, to license a suite of its proprietary process technologies for a grassroots 400,000-tpy polyethylene (PE) plant to be built at the Cilegon complex.

Alongside its UNIPOL PE process technology, Univation also will deliver licensing for its XCAT metallocene PE technology, the service provider said in a Jan. 31 release.

Designed to produce a broad range of PE resin products that include high-density PE, linear low-density PE (LLDPE), and metallocene LLDPE, the new PE plant would join the Cilegon complex’s existing two-trained PE plant, which has an overall PE production capacity of 336,000 tpy, according to CAP.

While CAP confirms it let a contract in late 2016 to Toyo Engineering Corp. of Japan to provide front-end engineering and design on the proposed PE plant, the company said it does not expect a final investment decision on the project until the end of the current quarter.

If approved, the PE plant is slated for startup sometime during first-quarter 2020.

Work also is under way on a $42-milllion project expand capacity of CAP subsidiary PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia’s 100,000-tpy butadiene plant at Cilegon to 137,000 tpy.

Approved in late 2016, the butadiene expansion is targeted for commissioning in third-quarter 2018, CAP said.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].