Shell restarts Singapore ethylene cracker: trade

[SINGAPORE] Royal Dutch Shell restarted its ethylene cracker in Bukom, Singapore, this week following a three-month maintenance and expansion works to raise the unit's capacity, trading sources not related to the oil major said on Tuesday.

Shell declined to comment on the restart dates of the cracker when contacted through email. "In keeping with our disclosure policy, we cannot provide details with respect to the work," a Singapore-based spokeswoman said.

Shell said the expansion work would increase the capacity of the cracker by 20 per cent. The cracker originally had a capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene.

The cracker uses a range of feedstock including naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to produce ethylene, a building block for plastics.

REUTERS