Asian Refiners Plan Joint Venture to Boost Petrochemicals Output

摘要

Two Asian refiners, Japan's Cosmo Oil and South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank, plan to set up a joint venture and spend more than 100 billion yen ($1 billion) expanding their petrochemicals business in a move that will also help Cosmo deal with excess gasoline output at a time of waning Japanese demand. Under a memorandum of agreement (MOA), the sides will establish in September a 50-50 joint venture in South Korea to take over an existing 380,000 ton per year naphtha-fed paraxylene (PX) plant at Hyundai Oilbank's Daesan refinery and build a new 800,000 ton/yr PX facility there too. The new plant, costing around $1 billion, would be the world's biggest single PX facility on scheduled completion in 2013.