BP proceeding with PTA debottlenecking in Guangdong
BP confirmed that it is proceeding with its project for a major increase in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production capacity at the BP Zhuhai Chemical Co. Ltd. site in Guangdong Province, China. BP is also planning to build a new world-scale PTA plant at the same site.
The planned debottleneck at Zhuhai will increase capacity by more than 200,000 tpy from its second unit (Z2), making the total PTA production capacity of the Zhuhai site some 1.7 million tpy.
BP has completed engineering design work for the Z2 debottleneck and expects the expansion to be fully operational in 1Q2012.
A new third PTA plant in Zhuhai is under pre-engineering planning. With a capacity of 1.25 million tpy, it will be the first to employ BP's latest generation PTA technology and, subject to approval from its shareholders and relevant Chinese government agencies, is expected to come onstream in 2014. If that projection holds, it would make Zhuhai the largest PTA site in BP's global PTA system.
"This investment will be the world's largest single train PTA plant, built in the world's largest and fastest growing PTA market with the world's best and lowest cost technology - once again reinforcing BP's commitment to the PTA business and to China," said Sue Rataj, BP's chief executive in petrochemicals.
The new technology will deliver a step change in environmental performance, particularly reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and other waste streams significantly. It enables scale and cost efficiencies which significantly reduce both capital cost and conversion costs to lower levels than any other PTA technology.
"With the deployment of this new technology, we will be the most competitive PTA producer in the world. We will actively pursue additional PTA investment options in other area of China as well as other growing markets in Asia," said James Yim, president of BP Aromatics Asia and China Olefins & Derivatives.
The new technology to be used at the expansion of the existing Zhuhai site is also applicable across BP's global PTA system, enabling new globally competitive expansion options.
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