ExxonMobil shuts Singapore petchem units for maintenance

[SINGAPORE] ExxonMobil has started maintenance at its Singapore Chemical Plant (SCP) due to last "a few weeks", a spokeswoman said on Monday, without giving details of the units involved at the company's largest integrated petrochemical complex.

"We confirm that there is a scheduled maintenance taking place at ExxonMobil's SCP, starting 1 May 2015," the spokeswoman told Reuters. "The overall duration of this maintenance is expected to last a few weeks. We are working closely with our customers to meet their business needs during this period of time." The complex includes a host of petrochemical units and two steam crackers which produce hydrocarbon products including ethylene and propylene, the building blocks for plastics.

One of the two crackers, which has a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene, was started up in 2013.

REUTERS