Total Expands Korea Petchem, Thanks to 'US Shale Boom'

Total said April 12 that its joint petrochemical venture in South Korea with local Hanwha is to be expanded, because of the "abundant availability" of "competitively priced propane feedstock .... due to the shale gas revolution in the United States."

Hanwha Total Petrochemical, a 50/50 joint venture between Hanwha and Total, will invest $450mn to expand its Daesan petrochemicals complex's ethylene processing capacity by 30% to 1.4mn million tons per year. It said the expansion project is to be completed by mid-2019 and that additional ethylene production would meet local demand and supply the fast-growing Chinese market next door.

Propane is one of the Liquid Petroleum Gases (LPGs) often found in natural gas production, but LPGs trade as a separate commodity from natural gas. Ethane is also found in natural gas production well-streams, typically in proportions of between 1% and 6% by content, and Shell as well as Ineos and others have lately expanded ethylene crackers at petchem complexes, attributing abundant ethane feedstock availability to the US shale gas boom.

Mark Smedley