S.Korea's Hanwha Total to raise LPG use in cracker after expansion

Hanwha Solutions

10/11/2017 04:07

* Cracker to use up to 900,000 T LPG after expansion 
    * LPG supplies to come mostly out of the United States 
 
    By Seng Li Peng 
    PENANG, Nov 10 (Reuters) - South Korea's Hanwha Total 
Petrochemical  SMCHE.UL  will use at least four times more 
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) feedstock when it completes 
raising its cracker capacity by 30 percent to 1.4 million tonnes 
per year (tpy) in 2019, said a top executive.  
    Hanwha Total operates a 1.1 million tpy cracker in Daesan, 
South Korea, that uses about 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of LPG a 
year, said Sebastien Bariller, a senior vice president in charge 
of feedstock purchasing for the company on the sidelines of a 
condensate and naphtha forum in Penang.  
    The amount of LPG used after the cracker's expansion would 
be raised by 700,000 tonnes, he said, with supply source mainly 
from the United States. 
    Most crackers in Asia - which produce the fundamental 
building blocks of plastics such as ethylene and propylene - run 
on naphtha. Many of the units, though, can replace at least 5 
percent of the naphtha with LPG, and that's often done when LPG 
prices are at least $50 a tonne lower than naphtha.  
    Hanwha Total, which also owns two condensate splitters, is a 
joint venture between French oil and gas company Total  TOTF.PA  
and the Hanwha Group.  
    Hanwha Total announced earlier this year that it would 
invest $450 million to expand the Daesan cracker capacity to 
meet rising petrochemicals demand.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nP6N1GY02G      
 
 (Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Tom Hogue) 
 ((lipeng.seng@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3086; Reuters 
Messaging: lipeng.seng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: CONDENSATE NAPHTHA/