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  Straits Times 11 Apr 07
Shell to build new extraction unit to boost $4.5b cracker plant
Pulau Bukom facility will have initial butadiene capacity of 155 kilotonnes
By Arthur Poon

Business Times 11 Apr 07
Shell adds butadiene unit to Bukom complex
Large part of the new plant capacity contracted to customers
By Ronnie Lim

Business Times 11 Apr 07
Asian investor eyes US$100m plant on Jurong Island
If project goes ahead, Petrochemical Corp of S'pore may expand to meet demand
By Ronnie Lim

Channel NewsAsia 10 Apr 07
Shell to construct butadiene extraction plant on Pulau Bukom

SINGAPORE : Petroleum giant Shell has confirmed it will proceed with the construction of a new butadiene extraction unit in Singapore.

The facility will form part of Shell's Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, which it is building on Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island.

Shell's Eastern Petrochemicals Complex is targeted for start-up in 2010. And the new butadiene extraction unit will form part of this world-scale project, which also includes an ethylene cracker.

The butadiene unit will be built on Pulau Bukom and have an initial capacity of 155 kilo tonnes per annum.

Shell said the new plant would help the company meet the demands of the region's fast-growing petrochemical industry.

Dr A Chockalingam, Startup Manager, Shell Eastern Petroleum Complex, said, "Over the next 10 years, Asia will need several crackers to meet the olefin demand and this is one of many. Butadiene is used to make rubber-based products which goes into tyres, adhesives and also in spandex material for nylon; it's another growing area as well."

The Shell Group is considered the largest marketer of butadiene globally. It has contracted a large part of the new plant capacity for butadiene to industry players in the region.

The building of Shell's Eastern Petrochemicals Complex is expected to create thousands of jobs. Shell said some 8,000 people would be needed to construct the plant and another 200 to run it.

Shell declined to reveal the exact investment cost for its new butadiene plant on Pulau Bukom. It would only say that it would form part of the overall cracker project, which is estimated to cost several billion US dollars. - CNA/ms

Straits Times 10 Apr 07
Shell to build new extraction unit to boost $4.5b cracker plant
Pulau Bukom facility will have initial butadiene capacity of 155 kilotonnes
By Arthur Poon

ENERGY giant Shell Eastern Petroleum will build a new extraction unit to complement the US$3 billion (S$4.5 billion) cracker due for completion in 2009.

The unit, to be built on Pulau Bukom, will have an initial annual capacity of 155 kilotonnes of butadiene, the firm said yesterday. It is part of the US$3 billion Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) - previously code- named 'Houdini' - targeted for start-up in 2009-2010.

'This project is yet another significant investment in Shell's downstream business portfolio, and in Singapore... It will help us to meet the demands of the region's fast-growing petrochemical industry,' said SEPC general manager Pieter Eijsberg yesterday.

Shell declined to reveal the cost of the new plant, but sources say it is likely to run into 'several tens of millions'. Butadiene is mainly used to produce styrene-butadiene rubber which, in turn, is principally used in making car tyres. It is also used to make polymers, co-polymers and chemical intermediates. The butadiene unit project, in its implementation phase, will now proceed to explore detailed engineering designs and procurement work before construction can take place.

A Shell spokesman said yesterday that land for the butadiene unit had already been set aside when the green light for the SEPC was given last July. However, the final investment decision was not made until now as the timing was not right then.

Shell, considered the largest marketer of butadiene globally, has contracted a large part of the new butadiene capacity to customers, and discussions are in progress with a number of potential customers for raffinate-1 - the plant's other key product.

Shell expects further downstream plant investments and expansions here and in the region.

'Shell remains committed to grow chemical investments in the Asia-Pacific and our announcement is another example of how we are delivering on our 'Grow East' strategy,' added Mr Eijsberg.

Shell is already one of Singapore's largest foreign investors, with a cumulative investment of over US$6 billion.

Its decision to pump billions of dollars to build another petrochemical cracker was on top of two such facilities it already owns on Jurong Island in a joint venture with a Japanese consortium.

The first piles for the new SEPC were driven last month at Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island where Shell's new ethylene cracker and mono-ethylene glycol downstream plant will be built.

When operational in three years, the complex will turn crude oil components into raw materials for making products such as plastics and synthetic fibres.

Business Times 11 Apr 07
Shell adds butadiene unit to Bukom complex
Large part of the new plant capacity contracted to customers
By Ronnie Lim

(SINGAPORE) Shell has announced the first additional plant for its new US$3 billion petrochemical complex, as the oil giant and the Economic Development Board (EDB) continue negotiations with other potential downstream investors.

Shell said yesterday it has taken a 'final investment decision to proceed with the construction of a new butadiene extraction unit' with a capacity of 155,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) on Pulau Bukom.

The unit is part of its Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC), construction of which started this month. The complex is scheduled to begin operating in 2009-2010. Shell would not say how much the butadiene plant will cost.

A spokesman said that technically it is not considered a separate downstream plant as it will extract butadiene from the main cracker.

SEPC general manager Peter Eijsberg said: 'The project is another significant investment in Shell's downstream business portfolio, and in Singapore. As an integral part of SEPC, it will help us meet the demands of the region's fast-growing petrochemical industry.'

Shell said it has already 'contracted a large part of the new plant capacity for butadiene to customers'.

Butadiene is used to produce polymers and chemical intermediates used for making end-products like synthetic rubber. The butadiene plant will also produce a by-product, raffinate-1, for which 'discussions are in progress with a number of potential customers'.

The go-ahead for Shell's SEPC complex was given last July. The initial project comprised an upstream 800,000 tpa ethylene cracker and a downstream 750,000 tpa mono-ethylene glycol plant.

At that time, Shell said it expected further downstream plant investments and expansions on Jurong Island by its affiliates and customers. It signalled the possibility of the butadiene investment last month when BT asked for an update of its discussions with downstream parties.

SEPC is Shell's second petrochemical investment here following its half-stake in Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore which operates two ethylene crackers with a total capacity of 1.4 million tpa.

Business Times 11 Apr 07
Asian investor eyes US$100m plant on Jurong Island
If project goes ahead, Petrochemical Corp of S'pore may expand to meet demand
By Ronnie Lim

(SINGAPORE) More multi-million dollar, higher value-add petrochemical investments are expected on Jurong Island this year from downstream investors capitalising on increased production from new and expanded crackers on the island.

Sources say a North-east Asian investor - not necessarily Japanese - is expected to make a final investment decision by year-end on an estimated US$100 million plant, and that Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) could embark on a comparable US$100 million expansion to cater to this investor as well as other potential customers.

'The investor, which is currently in negotiations with the Economic Development Board, is applying for the technology licence for the plant,' a source said. 'It also wants about 12 hectares on Jurong Island for the project. So the final investment decision would probably come no later than this year-end.'

Sources say that if the go-ahead is given, the new project will source feedstock from PCS - which operates two ethylene crackers here with a combined capacity of 1.4 million tonnes per annum (tpa) - as well as from Shell's new US$3 billion, 800,000 tpa cracker being built on Pulau Bukom.

This would require PCS - which last year spent US$50 million on a new high-tech plant to convert raw materials like butene and ethylene to propylene - to further expand.

Sumitomo Chemical president Hiromasa Yonekura told BT in December last year that PCS - a joint venture between Shell and a Sumitomo-led Japanese consortium - was looking at more high-tech investments to upgrade and add value to production.

This would help PCS meet the challenge from new Middle East complexes fuelled by cheap natural gas.

PCS officials had previously signalled that the company was considering upgrading to try to extract performance chemicals for polymers and resins that could be used by downstream plants producing items such as synthetic rubber and adhesives.

Separately, sources say plans for another higher value-add polymer investment on Jurong Island are at an advanced stage. This involves The Polyolefin Company - a downstream joint venture led by Sumitomo - which now operates two plants that produce low-density polyethylene and polypropylene.

The new polymer plant - which would source ethylene feedstock from Shell's new cracker - would produce higher value-add products for the region's automotive and other industries,

Sumitomo's Mr Yonekura said last December. Industry officials, meanwhile, are awaiting the final investment decision - expected around mid-year - by ExxonMobil on its second world-scale petrochemical complex here, estimated to cost US$4 billion. This will be comparable to or bigger than its existing 900,000 tpa cracker here.
links
Shell confirms plan to build multi-billion cracker plant on Bukom
By Jeana Wong Channel NewsAsia 27 Jul 06

More about Pulau Hantu and the Bukom Shell project on the Hantu blog

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