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CNOOC, Shell to expand joint capacity

By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-21 08:49

CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Co Ltd, China's biggest Sino-foreign partnership deal, plans to expand its current capacity by 10 to 20 per cent within the next four years, to meet surging domestic demand.

The US$4.3 billion joint project, launched in March between Royal Dutch Shell and China's biggest offshore oil company China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), yesterday disclosed plans to further expand its capacity.

"We are now looking at a 10 per cent to 20 per cent expansion of our existing production facilities within the next four years," Jean-Louis Bilhou, the joint venture's manufacturing director, told reporters yesterday at Daya Bay of South China's Guangdong Province.

The plant is currently able to annually produce 80,000 tons of ethylene and 2.3 million tons of other petrochemicals widely used in plastics production.

"We could easily expand the current capacity by 10 per cent, without incurring much expenditure," Bilhou said.

For long-term development, the petrochemical complex also has intentions of constructing additional green-field facilities in the second-phase expansion, which might be more than 20 per cent, the director said.

Simon Lam Chun Kai, chief executive officer of the joint plant, said the company had already reserved empty land for the new facilities, but decisions on its timescale and investment has yet to be finalized.

"It normally takes six months for us to do a feasibility study on expansion," Lam said, without providing further details.