China’s third-largest national oil company China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has reportedly announced to have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Shell International Petroleum Company Ltd.
As per trusted sources, the MoU aims to develop petrochemical manufacturing facilities and explore the existing collaboration of both the companies at the Nanhai facility in Huizhou, Guangdong province. Reportedly, the MoU further intends to construct a world-class integrated plant that is competitive and scalable.
Sources privy to the matter claim that the MoU was signed by Chief Executive Officer of Shell, Ben van Beurden and Chairman of CNOOC Yang Hua, in the presence of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
For the record, the Nanhai facility is a joint venture of CNOOC and Shell and is located in Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone at Huizhou, Guangdong province.
Executive Vice President of Global Chemicals Business at Shell, Graham van’t Hoff was reportedly quoted stating that the company is delighted to have expanded its partnership with CNOOC at Nanhai. The latest MoU demonstrates the ongoing strategic significance of the site and builds on the successful commencement of phase 2 of the facility expansion in May.
For the uninitiated, Shell and CNOOC had announced the official inauguration of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in May this year. The new facility includes a styrene monomer and propylene oxide (SMPO) plant that would be the biggest in China after it begins operations. Moreover, the latest ethylene cracker has more than doubled the ethylene manufacturing capacity of the complex which currently stands at about 1.2 million metric tons per annum.
The MoU was reportedly signed on October 16. Further details pertaining to the proposed plans under the new MoU are yet to be disclosed.
