Sinopec unit begins construction of Kazakhstan aromatics plant

SINGAPORE. April 13. KAZINFORM China's Sinopec Tenth Construction Company has started building a 500,000 mt/year aromatics facility at Kazakhstan's Atyrau oil refinery, according to a report Tuesday by parent company China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group.

According to Platts.com, in 2009, Sinopec Engineering was awarded a $1.04 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract by Kazakhstan's state-owned KazMunaiGaz to construct the facility.

The facility will produce up to 133,000 mt/year of benzene and 496,000 mt/year of paraxylene, KazMunaiGaz said in 2009. It will be built in two phases and is scheduled to be online by 2013.

The project will also enable the 120,000 b/d Atyrau refinery to produce gasoline meeting Euro-3 and Euro-4 standards, as well as additional volumes of hydrogen.

For full version see http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Petrochemicals/7440970 .