Shanghai eyes petrochemical production base
( 2002-06-13 11:12 ) (1 )

A top Chinese petrochemical official said on Wednesday that more efforts are needed to turn northern Hangzhou Bay into one of the world's high-level petrochemical production bases, which could match the American one built on a Mexican Bay.

"This would be a key step in the history of China's petrochemical industry," said Sheng Huaren, the former minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission and now a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Shanghai Petrochemical Company (SPC), affiliated with SINOPEC, should contribute much to the mission, said Sheng during his tour of Shanghai to attend the official first operation of the company's fourth-phase technical renovation of its ethene facilities.

The renovation project, which cost 6.5 billion yuan (US$786 million) in investment, will help SPC increase its ethene output from an annual 400,000 tons to 700,000 tons, said Lu Yiping, chairman of SPC.

It adopts the world's most advanced high technology from the United States and Europe to reach the international level.

Including the 150,000-ton ethene produced by its small refurbished facility, SPC is expected to be capable of producing about 900,000 tons of ethene yearly, becoming China's largest producer, Lu said.

SPC, created in 1972, was put into operation in 1977. In the past 30 years, it has processed 83.4 million tons of crude oil and produced 6.87 million tons of ethene and 57.63 million tons of chemical and oil products.

Sheng urged SPC to continue its efforts after the current technical project to push forward the 900,000-ton ethene project which is under construction at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, a joint venture between SINOPEC, SPC and BP.