Hanwha Total Petrochemical (Seoul, South Korea), a 50/50 joint venture between Hanwha Corp. (Seoul; www.hanwha.com) and Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com), will invest more than $300 million to expand its integrated petroleum-refining and petrochemicals platform located in Daesan, South Korea (photo). The investment will increase the site’s polyethylene capacity by more than 50% to 1.1 million ton/yr by the end of 2019. This project complements the steam cracker expansion and flexibilization project announced earlier this year, that will notably enable it to process low-cost propane feedstock. Thus, it will allow the facility to capture margin along the full ethylene-polyethylene value chain.
Daesan is one of Total’s six world-class integrated platforms and a strategic asset for both shareholders. The site, which is comprised of a flexible condensate splitter, a competitive steam cracker and polymers, styrene and aromatics, generated a net result of nearly $1 billion in 2016.
Hanwha Total Petrochemical will use the state-of-the-art Advanced Double Loop technology licensed by Total and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., which will enable the production of a wide range of high-end specialty polyethylenes.
The additional production of polyethylene, the most widely used polymer, will supply the local South Korean demand and also the fast-growing Chinese market.
“After the expansion of the steam cracker announced earlier this year, this project will allow us to capture margins across the full value chain at this giant integrated platform”, says Bernard Pinatel, president Refining & Chemicals of Total. “We will provide the fast-growing Asian market with high-added-value polymers by leveraging our differentiating technology.”