Esso (Thailand) PLC, an affiliate of Exxon Corp., has started production at its new aromatics complex on Thailand's eastern seaboard. Start-up was 2 months ahead of schedule, and the first commercial product shipment left the complex in early September.
The plant, about 125 km southeast of Bangkok in Chon Buri, is fully integrated with Esso Standard Thailand Ltd.'s 173,000 b/d Sriracha refinery. Capital cost of the complex was about $400 million.
The new aromatics plant has capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene-used primarily in the production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a raw material for production of polyester resins and fibers-and 70,000 tonnes/year of benzene. Thailand's only other aromatics producer is Aromatics Thailand PLC, which manufactured 337,000 tonnes last year.
Output will be marketed domestically and internationally by Exxon Chemical Co. affiliates. In Thailand, the plant's main customer is Siam Mitsui PTA Co., says Esso (Thailand) Director Pipop Pruecksamars. Siam Mitsui PTA is a joint venture of Thailand's Siam Cement PLC and Japan's Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
Last year, sluggish Asian demand forced Chevron Corp. and Petroleum Authority of Thailand to postpone indefinitely their plans to build a major aromatics complex in Thailand (OGJ, May 25, 1998, Newsletter). That plant would have had capacity to produce 675,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene, 600,000 tonnes/year of benzene, and 638,000 tons/year of raffinates.
Esso (Thailand) is owned 87.5% by Exxon and 12.5% by Thailand's finance ministry.
