CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co. Ltd., the refining arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), has commissioned a 4 million-tonne/year vacuum residue upgrading plant (VRUP) as part of the Phase 2 expansion of subsidiary CNOOC Huizhou Refining & Chemical Co. Ltd.’s (CHRCC) 12 million-tpy integrated refining complex at the Daya Bay Economic & Technological Development Zone in Huizhou in China’s Guangdong province (OGJ Online, Apr. 27, 2015).
Initially entered into operation during September, the Huizhou refinery’s VRUP—now China’s largest—is equipped with Chevron Lummus Global’s (CLG) proprietary vacuum residue desulfurization technology to convert residue from a wide range of crudes into feedstock for the complex’s residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) to enable increased production of gasoline and propylene from the RFCC, said CLG—a joint venture of CB&I and Chevron Corp.
The VRUP is one of 15 processing units, auxiliary production units, and supporting public works for the Phase 2 refinery project on which CHRCC completed startup and testing in early October (OGJ Online, Oct. 17, 2017).
Designed to increase crude processing capacity at the plant by 10 million tpy as well as its flexibility to process a wider slate of more economically attractive sour Arab Gulf grades, the refining leg of CHRCC’s Phase 2 expansion is scheduled to boost overall processing at the site to its new capacity of 22 million tpy by yearend, CNOOC said.
The 46.6 billion-yuan Phase 2 expansion at Huizhou also includes an ongoing project by CNOOC & Shell Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (CSPC)—a 50-50 joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Nanhai BV—to build a 1.2 million-tpy ethylene cracker and associated derivatives units at the complex (OGJ Online, Nov. 2, 2016; Dec. 15, 2015).
Scheduled for mechanical completion early next year, the CSPC’s ethylene expansion will increase overall ethylene production at Huizhou to 2.2 million tpy by yearend 2018.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
