Chinese petrochemical conglomerate Sinopec has officially joined the “Polyethylene” project. Together with KazMunayGas and SIBUR, they plan to construct a gas chemical complex for polyethylene production in the Atyrau region by 2029, QazMonitor reports citing primeminister.kz.
What happened: On April 19, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov met Zhao Dong, Director of Sinopec, and Mikhail Karisalov, CEO of SIBUR, in Astana. They signed a tripartite protocol, officially confirming Sinopec's entry into the “Polyethylene” project. The agreement outlines the joint construction of a gas chemical complex for polyethylene production at the Karabatan plot within the National Industrial Petrochemical Technopark near the city of Atyrau.
The facility’s equity shares are distributed as follows – KazMunayGas with 40%, and Sinopec and SIBUR with 30% each.
The facility is planned to have a capacity of 1.25 million tons of polyethylene per year, which represents 1% of the world's total share. The overall project cost is estimated to be about $7.7 billion.
The production line will consist of twenty-two grades of polyethylene using licensed technologies from Chevron Phillips and Univation. Of the total production, 40% will be 'premium' grade polyethylene.
Commissioning of the facility is planned for 2029. During the construction period, more than 8,000 jobs will be created, and about 850 jobs are expected for the facility’s operation.
The parties will create a list of goods and equipment that must be purchased from local manufacturers for the construction. In addition to foreign staff, the facility plans to hire and train local specialists.
Construction plans: The facility will be supplied with ethane extracted from the Tengiz Field. For this purpose, the agreement includes the construction of a combination plant capable of processing 9.1 billion cubic meters of dry gas per year, which will supply the facility with 1.6 million tons of ethane annually. Additionally, the agreement outlines the construction of a trunk line from the Tengiz Field to the Karabatan plot
Our economic priority is value-added production, which involves rapidly increasing the value within the manufacturing chain, with a focus on exports. The value added between ethane, the raw material, and polyethylene, the processed product, increases twenty-fold, from $80-90 to $1600-1800 per ton. The "Polyethylene" project will stimulate the development of the manufacturing industry and the country's economy. According to experts' estimates, the contribution to the country's GDP by 2030 from the implementation of the project is estimated to be approximately 1.2%.