ExxonMobil project said to hit construction snags; startup may now be early next year
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 25 Jan 11;
(SINGAPORE) The commercial startup of ExxonMobil's mega US$5-6 billion second petrochemical complex on Jurong Island, scheduled for the second half of this year, may be delayed.
Citing some construction 'issues', sources said the startup could possibly now be pushed back to early next year.
The US oil giant first broke ground in November 2007 for the complex - Singapore's largest single manufacturing investment to date - which was initially expected to begin operations in early 2011. This date was subsequently revised to H2 2011, when ExxonMobil provided a project update last April.
Sources cited issues like additional piling needed due to some soil subsidence, as well as delays from underground pipelines being installed late at a crucial plant site. This has apparently caused missed deadlines by some contractors there, and could potentially lead to a 3-6 month delay.
'But it's not a disaster like Shell's earlier hydrocracker woes, and more a hiccup,' one source said of the ExxonMobil project, citing the 1980 incident when Shell had to demolish and rebuild sub-standard, below-design strength concrete structures for its hydrocracker plant.
When contacted, an ExxonMobil spokesman would only say: 'We anticipate mechanical completion and startup of most of the units to occur in phases during 2011. The scale, complexity and interdependence of the units of this project requires that the startup process be done carefully and in sequence. Our top priority is the safety of our workforce.
'Exact dates will be determined when we can ensure that startup and continuing operations can be conducted safely and in a reliable manner. We cannot provide exact dates at this time. The startup process for many of the units can take months.'
The project had earlier reached a construction peak in the second half of last year with about 22,000 workers employed, the spokesman added, saying that 'the workforce is ramping down and there are currently about 19,000 workers on-site'.
ExxonMobil's first complex includes a 900,000- tonne per annum (tpa) main ethylene cracker on the petrochemicals island.
The latest complex comprises an upstream ethylene cracker of one million tpa, the largest here, and six secondary plants, plus a dedicated 220-megawatt cogeneration unit to supply utilities to the complex. The six downstream plants comprise two 650,000 tpa polyethylene units; a 450,000 tpa polypropylene unit; a 300,000 tpa specialty elastomers unit; an aromatics unit to produce 340,000 tpa of benzene; and an oxo-alcohol expansion of 125,000 tpa.
What has apparently added to the project's complexity is the fact that several contractors from different countries are in charge of the various sub-projects.
For instance, ExxonMobil awarded the construction contract for the steam cracker recovery unit to the Shaw Group, and that for the steam cracker furnaces to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Heurtey. Mitsui was also given the building contracts for the polypropylene and specialty elastomer units, while those for the two polyethylene units went to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Last April - when the project reached a major milestone, with the arrival of seven giant furnace modules for the main cracker - EM Chemical's venture executive Georges Grosliere told BT that 'there are 15 sub-projects altogether' at the complex, with the first of these (the oxo-alcohol plant) already completed in September 2009.
'The philosophy is to get all these ready and tested before the cracker's startup in the second half of 2011,' he said at that time.
