S-Oil commits to new FCC, petchem capacity

OREANDA-NEWS. South Korean refiner S-Oil has made a final commitment to build a 60,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit with associated petrochemical capability, to be completed by June 2018.

S-Oil has an existing 580,000 b/d refinery and petrochemical complex at Onsan. The new FCC will adopt high-severity technology licensed by Axens. It maximizes a propylene yield ratio of up to 20pc compared with a normal yield at about 5-10pc. S-Oil has not yet finalized the final plans on propylene capacity but said output will be close to 700,000 t/yr. The new unit will take the company's total propylene capacity to about 900,000 t/yr.

The FCC will also be able to produce up to 200,000 t/yr of ethylene from an off-gas recovery unit.

S-Oil has planned to build two propylene derivative units to extend its petrochemical supply chain, including a 400,000 t/yr polypropylene unit and a 300,000 t/yr propylene oxide plant, which are targeted to start up in the second half of 2018. No investment plans have been made for ethylene downstream units.

S-Oil is majority owned by Saudi Arabia' state-owned oil firm Saudi Aramco.