Wuhan Petrochemical Likely to Boost Throughput by 70% in 2013

Sinopec Wuhan Petrochemical in Hubei province will probably boost its crude throughput by 70% in 2013, after restarting a 3.5m tonne/year crude distillate unit (CDU) in late 2012, a company source said on 22 February.

The company is planning to restart the CDU after bringing some new secondary units online late this year, the source explained. These units include a 1.8m tonne VGO hydrogenation unit and a 1.8m tonne/year hydrocracker, the source said.

In addition, Wuhan Petrochemical plans to start operation of an 800,000 tonne/year ethylene unit in late March 2013, the source added.

Located in central China, Wuhan Petrochemical has two CDUs, with the capacity at 5m tonne/year and 3.5m tonne/year, respectively. The company is operating the 5m tonne/year CDU, but it has kept the other one idle since starting up the 5m tonne/year one in December 2007.

(c1energy.com, Edited by Topco)