China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) has let a contract to Eni SPA to provide technology licensing and basic engineering for a grassroots bottom-of-the-barrel upgrading plant to be built at Sinopec subsidiary Maoming Petrochemical Co. Ltd.’s more than 470,000-b/d Maoming integrated refining complex in Guangdong Province, China.
Alongside technology licensing for its proprietary Eni slurry technology (EST), Eni’s scope of work under the contract will include delivery of the process design package and other services, including operational and technical training, as well as assistance during the development, implementation of detailed engineering, precommissioning, and startup phases of the plant, Eni said.
With a design capacity of 46,000 b/d (310 tonnes/hr) for refining heavy residue, the new unit will replace the refinery’s existing petcoke production line to produce more environmentally friendly fuels in compliance with the International Maritime Organization’s impending regulations requiring lower sulfur content in bunker fuels beginning in 2020 (OGJ, Jan. 1, 2018, p. 48; OGJ Online, Aug. 28, 2017).
Sinopec will be responsible for detailed engineering and construction of the project, Eni said.
To be the first full-scale, commercial use EST, Maoming’s plant is scheduled to be completed by 2020.
Eni did not disclose of a value of the contract.
In October 2013, the Italian operator commissioned the first 23,000-b/d EST conversion plant for production of Euro 5-quality diesel and other high-quality streams at its 200,000-b/d Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery near Pavia, in Po Valley, Italy, following extensive testing of the slurry hydrocracking process technology at a 1,200-b/sd EST demonstration plant at the company’s 120,000-b/d Taranto refinery (OGJ Online, Mar. 15, 2013; May 16, 2011).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
