China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC, Beijing / China; www.cnooc.com.cn) and Shell Petrochemicals (London / UK; www.shell.com) have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to build a new chemicals complex at their JV production site at the Daya Bay Petrochemicals Industrial Park in Huizhou, Guangdong / China. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the deal was signed in a virtual online ceremony taking place in Guangzhou, Beijing and The Hague / The Netherlands. The new complex will be centred on a 1.5m t/y cracker and produce derivatives including polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, styrene and propylene oxide.

The companies’ 50:50 JV, CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals (CSPC; www.cnoocshell.com), operates two ethylene crackers with a combined 2.2m t/y capacity at the site (see Plasteurope.com of 18.05.2018). The partners said the new project – known as phase 3 – will serve the growing number of intermediate and performance chemicals customers in China. Phase 1 started commercial operations in 2006, and phase 2 began in 2018. Shell will supply its technology for a linear alpha olefins plant.

The CSPC site currently converts a variety of liquid feedstocks into olefins and derivative products. The site’s second SMPO plant, which will be the largest in China, is currently under construction. In January 2020, CNOOC and Shell announced plans to build a polycarbonate plant at the site.