Mega Ton Project Mechanical Completion! Review of South China Large Ethylene

On July 15, 2025, ExxonMobil's Huizhou Ethylene Project was officially put into operation in the Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Industrial Park. The ExxonMobil Huizhou Project includes a flexible feed steam cracker with an annual production capacity of 1.6 million tons of ethylene, two high-performance linear low-density polyethylene units each with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons, the world's largest single-unit low-density polyethylene plant with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons, and two differentiated high-performance polypropylene units each with an annual capacity of 950,000 tons. The products include bulk commodities and specialty products, including high value-added basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene. The completion of the project will significantly enhance China's self-sufficiency rate of high-quality raw materials such as metallocene polyethylene, high-end polypropylene, and polyolefin elastomers. 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 2.6 million tons/year slurry-bed residue hydrogenation unit. Currently, it operates 27 major production units and supporting systems, including cracking, high-density polyethylene, full-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, styrene, synthetic rubber, and others. The company is capable of producing more than 380 million tons of over 200 varieties of products annually, including synthetic resins, synthetic rubber, liquid organic chemical raw materials, and other series of products.

On November 17, 2023, the Maoming Petrochemical Refining Transformation and Upgrading and Ethylene Quality Improvement Project officially commenced construction. Using independently developed technology, the ethylene capacity will be upgraded from 1 million tons per year to 1.64 million tons per year. The project includes the construction of a 1 million tons per year ethylene unit, a 400,000 tons per year high-density polyethylene unit, and 12 other units and supporting facilities. The quality improvement project is expected to be commissioned in 2026.

The first phase of the Sinopec Refining and Petrochemical (Zhanjiang) project mainly includes 18 refining units such as a 10 million tons/year atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, 10 chemical units such as an 800,000 tons/year steam cracker. It was fully completed by the end of 2019 and officially commenced production and operation in June 2020. The project can produce National VI gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemical products such as polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and EVA.

In 2024, the No. 2 EVA unit at Zhongke Refinery was put into operation. On July 2, 2025, Phase II of the liquefied hydrocarbon terminal project was officially commissioned, adding a new 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 eight months. Upon completion, it will add an additional 500,000 tons per year of aromatics production capacity based on the existing 1.8 million tons per year reforming unit. Zhongke Refining & Chemical plans to increase its refining capacity from 10 million tons per year to 15 million tons per year, along with an additional 1 million tons per year of ethylene production capacity, though the specific start time has not yet been determined.

On May 28, 2025, the groundbreaking ceremony for the civil construction and installation of the 1.6 million tons/year ethylene unit of the CNOOC Shell Huizhou Phase III Ethylene Project was held. The project will involve the construction of a 1.6 million tons/year ethylene unit, 16 downstream chemical facilities, as well as utilities and supporting infrastructure. Upon completion in 2026, the ethylene production capacity of CNOOC Shell will reach 3.8 million tons/year, maintaining its status as the largest single ethylene complex in China and delivering significant economies of scale.

This project introduces multiple process technologies that are being applied for the first time in Asia and domestically. Among them, seven units adopt Shell's proprietary technology, which can supply more than 5 million tons of chemical products to the market annually, including metallocene polyethylene and polypropylene. This will effectively fill the gap in the domestic market's demand for high-end chemical products and promote China's chemical industry to advance towards the high end of the global value chain.

The CNOOC and Shell Huizhou Phase I Project was commissioned in early 2006. Its main facilities include 11 production units, supporting utilities, docks, storage and transportation, as well as environmental protection facilities, including a 1 million tons/year ethylene unit and a 300,000 tons/year unit.High-density polyethylene/150,000 tons/Low-density polyethylene,240,000 tonsPolypropylene per year,290,000 tons/Year Propylene Oxide,85,000 tons/Year polyols,60,000 tons/year propylene glycol,165,000 tons/Year butadiene,27/32 million tons/year ethylene oxideEleven sets of equipment including ethylene glycol, among which a 290,000 tons/year PO unit uses the PO/SM process.

The CNOOC and Shell Phase II Project began commissioning in April 2018, with a total investment of 22.8 billion yuan. It includes production units such as a 1.2 million tons/year ethylene plant, a 180,000 tons/year butadiene plant, a 150,000 tons/year methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE)/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 and octanol plant, a 400,000 tons/year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, a 300,000 tons/year linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant, a 400,000 tons/year polypropylene plant, and a 150,000/480,000 tons/year ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant, among a total of 11 production units. Among these, the 350,000 tons/year phenol-acetone plant and the 250,000 tons/year butanol and 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 propylene oxide (PO) plant was commissioned in 2021, bringing CNOOC's total PO production capacity to 590,000 tons/year.

CNOOC Huizhou Petrochemicals was completed in March 2009, ending CNOOC's history of "extraction without refining". It is also the world's first refinery focused on processing high-acid heavy crude oil from the sea. In 2013, to accelerate the development of the midstream and downstream industries and further leverage the advantages of refining and chemical integration, Huizhou Petrochemicals constructed a second-phase refining project with a capacity of 10 million tons per year, which successfully underwent a test run in October 2017. In 2020, Huizhou Petrochemicals initiated a product structure optimization and quality upgrading project, adding aromatic compounds integration, continuous reforming, hydrocracking, and light gasoline etherification units. Currently, Huizhou Petrochemicals has a total processing capacity of 22 million tons per year, with 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 swing. 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 Gulei Ethylene Project is the largest single investment Sino-foreign joint venture project in Fujian Province to date, jointly invested and constructed by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Fujian Energy and Petrochemical Group, and Zhangzhou Jiulongjiang Group. The construction scope includes a world-class ethylene unit with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons (with the expected maximum annual ethylene production capacity reaching 1.8 million tons), as well as downstream deep processing integrated units. The ethylene production scale is 1.5 million tons per year, with downstream plans to build 100,000/1 million tons per year of ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol, 400,000 tons per year of HDPE, 600,000 tons per year of mLLDPE/HDPE, and 50,000 tons per year of 1-hexene.

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

In addition, supporting facilities will be constructed, including a 910,000 t/a pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit (with styrene extraction), a 220,000 t/a butadiene extraction unit, a 56,000 t/a 1-butene unit, and a 570,000 t/a aromatics extraction unit.