Technip to support CNOOC Oil’s ethylene project in China

French engineering firm Technip has secured a contract from CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals to supply its ethylene technology and to process a design package for a grassroots 1,000 kilo-tonne per annum (KTA) ethylene plant in China.

Technip will also provide technical support during the detailed engineering, pre-commissioning and start-up stages of the plant.

The engineering firm will offer both its ultra selective conversion (USC) furnace technology, designed for high-capacity, low-cost liquid and gas cracking capabilities, and its advanced recovery system (ARS) technology, which utilises the heat integrated rectifier system (HIRS) to reduce energy consumption in liquids cracker designs.

The ethylene plant is located in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. Its products will feed other downstream units at the complex, including a 300,000 metric tonnes per annum grassroots cumene plant.

Badger Licensing will provide the technology for the cumene plant.

Technip's US operating centre in Houston, Texas is currently executing the project with support from the group's operating centre in Mumbai, India.

Mechanical completion of the project is expected by mid 2015.

Technip senior vice president of process technology Stan Knez said the contract will expand the company's presence in the Chinese market, where its ethylene technology is recognised for its reliability, feedstock flexibility and lowest energy consumption.

Knez said: "As the largest ethylene licensor and contractor, Technip is pleased to support CNOOC, one of the most important independent oil and gas exploration companies worldwide, with this project."