UserPic Kokel, Nicolas
2025/03/13 09:50 AM



Construction is under way for S-Oil's $7 billion Shaheen petrochemical project in Ulsan (Credit: S-Oil)

Ulsan, South Korea – February 17, 2025 – S-Oil, a leading South Korean refiner, has announced that its $7 billion Shaheen petrochemical project in Ulsan has reached 55% completion in engineering, procurement, and construction. This major initiative, featuring one of the world’s largest integrated steam crackers, is on track for mechanical completion in the first half of 2026, with commercial operations starting in the second half. Utilizing thermal crude-to-chemicals (TC2C) technology developed with Saudi Aramco and Lummus Technology, the project will produce 1.8 million tons of ethylene annually, doubling S-Oil’s petrochemical output to 25% and boosting South Korea’s economy with up to 17,000 jobs during peak construction.

#soil  #aramco  #lummus  #southkorea  #korea  #shaheen  #tc2c  #crudeoiltochemicals  #oiltochemicals  #steamcracking  #ethylene  #ulsan 

UserPic Kokel, Nicolas
2025/03/13 07:31 AM

The Shahen TC2C Project Mass Balance has been completed. 
The TC2C Plant will import 46,000 bpd of Arab Light crude oil, corresponding to 2,300,000 tonnes annually.
However, in order to obtain the announced product quantities (1,800,000 tonnes of ethylene, 770,000 tonnes of propylene, 200,000 tonnes of butadiene, and 280,000 tonnes of benzene) our calculation based on typical cracking yields show that the feedstock needs to amount to almost 5 million tonnes.
The cracker will use ROG so that certainly some ethane will be additionally consumed by the cracker, but the feedstock balance reaquired for the precise product quantities is made of 150,000 tonnes of ethane, 1,300,000 tonnes of LPG (C3/C4 = 1:1 ratio) and 3,500,000 tonnes naphtha. Therefrom, 275,000 tonnes of LPG and 1,350,000 tonnes of nahptha  will be provided by the TC2C plant.
We assume that the supplemental feedstock will be imported, unless additional crude oil will be imported and processed with conventional distillation units.
As this is a TC2C demonstration project, it is assumed that only the theoretical quantities of pygas and pyoil originating from the TC2C provided feedstock to the cracker will be recirculated to the TC2C hydrocracking and hydroreating units (270,000 from 475,000 tonnes of pygas, and 65,000 from 113,000 tonnes of fuel oil).
In reality, the sizing of the various hydroprocessing/hydrotreatment units maybe different, but absent confirmation on units capacities, this is our best educated guess.


#tc2c  #shaheen  #massbalance  #crudetochemicals  #crudeoiltochemicals  #c2c  #tc2c  #cotc  #aramco  #soil  #southkorea 

UserPic Kokel, Nicolas
2025/03/11 05:40 AM

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., DHAHRAN, 17th Nov 2022, Aramco affiliate S-OIL to build one of the world’s largest petrochemical crackers in South Korea

Aramco is making its biggest ever investment in South Korea to develop one of the world’s largest refinery-integrated petrochemical steam crackers through its S-OIL affiliate, in line with the company’s strategy to maximize the crude to chemicals value chain.

The $7 billion Shaheen project aims to convert crude oil into petrochemical feedstock and would represent the first commercialization of Aramco and Lummus Technology’s TC2C thermal crude to chemicals technology, which increases chemical yield and reduces operating costs. It follows an earlier $4 billion investment into the first phase of the petrochemical expansion completed in 2018.

Located at S-Oil’s existing site in Ulsan, the new plant is planned to have the capacity to produce up to 3.2 million tons of petrochemicals annually and include a facility to produce high-value polymers. The project is expected to start in 2023 and be completed by 2026.

The steam cracker is expected to process by-products from crude processing, including naphtha and off-gas, to produce ethylene — a building block petrochemical used to make thousands of everyday items. The plant is also expected to produce propylene, butadiene and other basic chemicals.

#shaheen  #soil  #petrochemicals  #tc2c  #oiltochemicals  #crudeoiltochemicals  #southkorea  #aramco  #steamcracker  #ulsan  #thermalcrudetochemical  #naphtha 

UserPic Kokel, Nicolas
2025/01/28 07:18 PM

The description of the Yeosu plant of GS Caltex has been updated. 

 

#gscaltex #yeosu  #refinery  #southkorea 

UserPic Kokel, Nicolas
2025/01/28 07:08 PM

July 2, 2018 | KBR SCORE™ Technology Selected for GS Caltex Grassroots Olefins Plant in South Korea
KBR, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a contract to supply its proprietary SCORE™ Ethylene Technology to GS Caltex Corporation for a grassroots mixed feed cracker (MFC) for its project in Yeosu, South Korea.  Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide its innovative Selective Cracking Optimum Recovery (SCORE™) technology license and basic engineering design services for a 700 KTA ethylene mixed feed cracker to be built by GS Caltex, a company owned by GS Energy and U.S. based Chevron Corp. The new plant will use naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas and refinery off-gases as its main feedstocks. It will be constructed in the South Korean southern city of Yeosu where GS Caltex's 790,000 barrels-per-day refinery is located. The project will use KBR's highly selective SC-1 furnaces for the highest yield and flexibility. (Source)

29th Aug 2018 | GS Caltex to Build Olefin Plant in Yeosu for 2.6 Tln Won
GS Caltex said on Aug. 7 (2018) that the company decided to build an olefin production facility capable of producing 700,000 tons of ethylene per year and 500,000 tons of polyethylene annually by investing about 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in a 430,000-square-meter site near its second plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.

11th Nov 2022 | GS Caltex completes construction of $2 billion petrochemicals manufacturing plant.
GS Caltex completed the construction of its 2.7-trillion-won ($2 billion) petrochemicals manufacturing plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla.
The newly-built production plant, a mixed feed cracker (MFC), will mainly produce olefins such as ethylene and polyethylene. Olefins are widely used as raw materials for plastics, rubbers and chemical products.

The MFC will annually produce 750,000 tons of ethylene, 500,000 tons of polyethylene, 410,000 tons of propylene, 240,000 tons of mixed C4 raffinate and 410,000 tons of pyrolysis gasoline, according to GS Caltex.
Unlike naphtha crackers, which uses only naphtha for petrochemicals production, MFCs can use not only naphtha but other feedstock such as liquid petroleum gas and refinery off-gas, which are crude refining byproducts. The facility can also produce hydrogen using naphtha and refinery off-gas, replacing the previously-used liquefied natural gas, and therefore cut carbon emissions by 76,000 tons a year, said GS Caltex.

4th Jul 2024 | Korea’s GS Caltex to debottleneck Yeosu cracker in Sep
The cracker will undergo a turnaround and debottlenecking from 23 September to 25 November, according to sources at the company. GS Caltex's mixed-feed cracker currently has a nameplate capacity of 750,000 t/yr of ethylene and 410,000 t/yr of propylene. Its ethylene capacity will increase by 150,000 t/yr to 900,000 t/yr after the debottlenecking process, while propylene capacity will rise by 60,000 t/yr to 470,000 t/yr.
The debottlenecking process will also raise GS Caltex's crude C4s output from the existing 250,000 t/yr to 300,000 t/yr. The company now feeds its crude C4s to a 90,000 t/yr butadiene extraction unit, a joint venture (JV) plant between GS Caltex's parent company GS Energy and fellow producer Lotte Chemical.
GS Caltex also owns two polymers units at the same site — a 500,000 t/yr high density polyethylene (HDPE) and a 180,000 t/yr polypropylene (PP) plant. The PP unit takes in propylene from GS Caltex's existing refinery fluid catalytic crackers (FCC).
The debottlenecking will raise olefins output, resulting in a surplus of 400,000 t/yr of ethylene for domestic sales and exports after supplying its HDPE plant. The propylene surplus will be 800,000 t/yr after factoring in GS Caltex's 500,000 t/yr propylene output from existing FCCs and its PP consumption.
This will also mark the first turnaround of GS Caltex's cracker since it was commissioned in 2021. GS Caltex's mixed feed cracker can take in a combination of naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas and off-gas from its FCC.

#olefinsplan  #mixedfeedcracker  #steamcracker  #yeosun  #gscaltex  #southkorea