Jurong Aromatics completes maintenance at Singapore petchem complex

[SINGAPORE] Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC) has completed maintenance at its petrochemical complex in Singapore that had started around the middle of December, a company spokesman said on Monday.

JAC operates a 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) condensate splitter and an aromatics complex which started operations early in the third quarter. "We have successfully completed our temporary turnaround works, which added further optimization and processing flexibility to our world-class plant," he said. "Rectification works on the xylene splitter have also been completed," he added, but did not specify the start-up date.

Industry sources said the petrochemical complex might resume operations only in the first half of April, but this could not be confirmed.

After the maintenance, JAC will be able to switch between condensates and naphtha feedstocks, instead of relying only on the former, traders said. "But naphtha is not cheap, so JAC could take its time on restarting the complex. They may want to test the system using naphtha," one source said.

The Asian naphtha market was holding firm in February, because of a supply crunch, before sliding on March 7 after ADNOC offered a record spot volume of naphtha in a single tender following its Ruwais refinery expansion.

Traders added that the Singapore-based petrochemical maker currently still has sufficient condensate feedstock. "They've still got some in the tank," a second source said, adding that JAC's suppliers, BP and Glencore, also had condensate on hand.

SK Group and Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group are JAC's largest shareholders. The other shareholders include Glencore, Arovin Ltd, Shefford Investments, Thai KK Industry, Singapore's EDB Investments and India's Essar Group.

REUTERS