Inventory | Seven Major Ethylene Projects in South China!

On July 15, 2025, ExxonMobil's Huizhou Ethylene Project was officially put into operation at the Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Industrial Park. The ExxonMobil Huizhou Project includes a flexible feed steam cracker with an annual output of 1.6 million tons of ethylene, two high-performance linear low-density polyethylene units with an annual output of 1.2 million tons each, the world's largest single-unit low-density polyethylene unit with an annual output of 500,000 tons, and two differentiated high-performance polypropylene units with an annual output of 950,000 tons each. The products include bulk commodities and specialty products, such as ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene, which are high-value-added basic chemical raw materials. The completion of the project will significantly increase the self-sufficiency rate of high-quality raw materials such as metallocene polyethylene, high-end polypropylene, and polyolefin elastomers in China. This project is the first major petrochemical project independently constructed by an American company in China.

Maoming Petrochemical has a crude oil processing capacity of 18 million tons per year and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million tons per year. In December 2020, Maoming Petrochemical completed and commissioned the world's largest and China's first slurry-bed residue hydrogenation unit with a capacity of 2.6 million tons per year. It currently possesses 27 main production units and supporting systems, including cracking, high-density polyethylene, full-density polyethylene, high-pressure polyethylene, polypropylene, styrene, synthetic rubber, etc. Each year, it can produce over 3.8 million tons of more than 200 varieties of products, including synthetic resins, synthetic rubber, and liquid organic chemical raw materials.

On November 17, 2023, the Maoming Petrochemical Refining Transformation and Ethylene Quality Improvement Project officially commenced construction. Utilizing independently developed technology, it aims to upgrade the ethylene production capacity from 1 million tons per year to 1.64 million tons per year. The project involves the construction of a 1 million tons per year ethylene plant, a 400,000 tons per year full-density polyethylene plant, and 12 other units along with supporting facilities. This quality improvement project is expected to be operational by 2026.

The Zhanjiang Phase I project of Zhongke Refinery and Petrochemical includes 18 refining units such as 10 million tons/year atmospheric and vacuum distillation and 10 chemical units such as 800,000 tons/year steam cracking. It was fully completed by the end of 2019 and officially put into production and operation in June 2020. It can produce National VI gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, and chemical products such as polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and EVA.

In 2024, the second EVA unit of Zhongke Refinery and Petrochemical will be put into operation. On July 2, 2025, the second phase of the liquefied hydrocarbon terminal project will be officially put into operation, adding a 50,000-ton berth and supporting storage and transportation facilities, increasing the annual throughput capacity to 2.52 million tons.

In April 2025, the construction of the No. 2 Aromatics Extraction Unit and its supporting projects will commence, with a total investment of 260 million RMB and a construction period of 8 months. Upon completion, it will be based on the existing 1.8 million tons/year reforming unit, adding an additional 500,000 tons/year of aromatics capacity. Zhongke Refining & Chemical plans to increase its refining capacity from 10 million tons/year to 15 million tons/year, with an additional 1 million tons/year of ethylene capacity, although the specific start time has not yet been determined.

On May 28, 2025, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 1.6 million tons per year ethylene unit construction and installation project of the CNOOC and Shell Huizhou Phase III Ethylene Project was held. The CNOOC and Shell Huizhou Phase III Ethylene Project will build 1.6 million tons per year of ethylene capacity along with 16 downstream chemical units, as well as utilities and supporting facilities. Upon completion of the project in 2026, the ethylene production capacity of CNOOC and Shell will reach 3.8 million tons per year, continuing to hold the "crown" as the largest single ethylene plant in China, with significant scale benefits.

The project introduces several process technologies applied for the first time in Asia and domestically, among which seven units adopt Shell's proprietary technology. It will provide the market with over 5 million tons of chemical products annually, including metallocene polyethylene and polypropylene, effectively filling the domestic market's demand for high-end chemical products and promoting China's chemical industry to move towards the high end of the global value chain.

The CNOOC and Shell Huizhou Phase I project was put into operation in early 2006. The main facilities include 11 production units and supporting utilities, docks, storage and transportation, as well as environmental protection facilities, including 1 million tons/year of ethylene and 300,000 tons./Annual Total Density Polyethylene,150,000 tons/Low-density polyethylene,240,000 tonsAnnual polypropylene290,000 tons/year propylene oxide,85,000 tonsPolyol for more than a year/60,000 tons/Propylene glycol,165,000 tonsButadiene,27/32 million tons/year ethylene oxide11 sets of equipment including ethylene glycol, among which the 290,000 tons/year PO unit uses the PO/SM method.

The CNOOC Shell Phase II project began commissioning in stages starting from April 2018, with a total investment of 22.8 billion yuan. It includes an ethylene plant with a capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, a 180,000 tons/year butadiene plant, a methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) plant with a capacity of 150,000 tons/year and a 50,000 tons/year butene-1 plant, a 250,000 tons/year olefin conversion unit, a 350,000 tons/year phenol-acetone plant, a 250,000 tons/year butanol-octanol plant, a 400,000 tons/year high-density polyethylene plant, a 300,000 tons/year linear low-density polyethylene plant, a 400,000 tons/year polypropylene plant, and an ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant with capacities of 150,000/480,000 tons/year, among a total of 11 production units. Among these, the 350,000 tons/year phenol-acetone plant and the 250,000 tons/year butanol-octanol plant (including 106,000 tons/year n-butanol and 120,000 tons/year butanol) were commissioned in April 2018. The 300,000 tons/year PO plant was commissioned in 2021, bringing CNOOC’s PO production capacity to 590,000 tons/year.

CNOOC Huizhou Petrochemical was completed in March 2009, ending CNOOC's history of "extraction without refining" and becoming the world's first refinery specifically designed for processing high-acid heavy crude oil from the sea. In 2013, to accelerate the development of midstream and downstream industries and further leverage the advantages of refinery and chemical integration, Huizhou Petrochemical constructed a second phase with a refining capacity of 10 million tons per year. It successfully completed a trial run in October 2017. In 2020, Huizhou Petrochemical launched a project to optimize its product structure and upgrade quality, adding aromatics, continuous reforming, hydrocracking, and light gasoline etherification units. Currently, Huizhou Petrochemical has a total processing capacity of 22 million tons per year and an ethylene production capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, laying the foundation for CNOOC to compete with the other two major oil companies in the refining and chemical industry chain.

On February 19, 2024, the main construction of the Zhongsha Gulei Ethylene Project commenced in full. As of now, the overall progress of the project has exceeded 50%. The project is expected to be completed in 2026, with a total investment of approximately 44.8 billion yuan.

The Zhongsha Gulai Ethylene Project is the largest single foreign joint venture investment in Fujian Province to date. It is jointly invested and constructed by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Fujian Energy Petrochemical Group, and Zhangzhou Jiulongjiang Group. The construction includes a world-class 1.5 million tons/year ethylene plant (with an expected maximum annual ethylene capacity of 1.8 million tons) and downstream deep processing units. The ethylene and downstream production scale is 1.5 million tons/year, with planned downstream construction of 10/100 thousand tons/year of ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol, 400 thousand tons/year of HDPE, 600 thousand tons/year of mLLDPE/HDPE, and 50 thousand tons/year of hexene-1.

Propylene and downstream — The downstream of propylene plans to construct a 400,000 tons/year polypropylene (impact-resistant/random) and a 550,000 tons/year polypropylene (homopolymer/random). Additionally, part of the downstream plans include the construction of 250,000/150,000 tons/year phenol-acetone, 270,000 tons/year bisphenol A, and 290,000 tons/year polycarbonate.

Additionally, it includes the construction of a 910,000 tons/year cracked gasoline hydrogenation unit (including styrene extraction), a 220,000 tons/year butadiene extraction unit, a 56,000 tons/year butene-1 unit, and a 570,000 tons/year aromatics extraction unit.

The core units of the BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site include a steam cracker with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of ethylene, as well as multiple downstream units. The products are applicable in industries such as automotive, construction, high-speed rail, electronics and electrical appliances, food packaging, home and personal care, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals.

The construction content also includes 660/830/200 thousand tons per year of ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol/refined ethylene oxide units, a 215 thousand tons per year non-ionic surfactant unit, a 500 thousand tons per year polyethylene unit, 2x190 thousand tons per year isopropyl acrylate units, a 375 thousand tons per year butyl acrylate unit, a 100 thousand tons per year isooctyl acrylate unit, a 500 thousand tons per year butanol and octanol unit, a 50 thousand standard cubic meters per hour synthesis gas unit, an 80 thousand tons per year (calculated as pure) neopentyl glycol unit, an 110 thousand tons per year formaldehyde unit, a 40 thousand tons per year citral unit, etc., along with supporting utilities and auxiliary facilities. The project uses naphtha, n-butane, and other raw materials to produce ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylene, cracked fuel oil, isobutylene, and other downstream products.