S-Oil celebrates completion of world’s biggest PX plant

Korean oil refiner S-Oil Corp. celebrated in October the completion of its paraxylene (PX) production facility in Onsan, Ulsan, North Gyeongsang Province, which is considered the world’s biggest PX plant. The celebration was attended by South Korea’s President, Lee Myung-bak, and Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi Arabian minister of petroleum and mineral resources. PX is a raw material used in the production of polyester and water bottles. S-Oil CEO Ahmed Subaey said that the company invested 1.3 trillion won (US$204 million) for the expansion program which broke ground on June 11, 2009. With the completion of the plant, which is known as the No.2 Aromatic Complex, S-Oil can now produce 1.7 million tons of PX annually, the largest among single plants in the world. The company will also be able to produce 560,000 tons of benzene, which will almost double its original production capacity. The new facility catapults S-Oil as one of the most competitive petrochemical products suppliers in the world. President Lee said, Through the expansion of the PX plant, I expect further growth for the Korean oil refining sector from an industry that refines imported crude oil into an industry that produces and exports high value-added petroleum products. Ali Al-Naimi said, the cooperation between S-Oil and Saudi Aramco is seen as the most ideal model of economic cooperation between an oil-producing country and an oil-consuming country. It is known as the most successful case out of the many projects that Saudi Arabia has undertaken around the world. S-Oil will sell products from the new plant to markets overseas and expects to have an additional US$2 billion in export revenues annually. (October 20, 2011)