Typically processed in an oil refinery, crude oil is transformed into a variety of fractions such as naphtha, diesel, kerosene, gasoline, and high boiling residue.
Crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) technology directly convert crude oil to high-value chemicals instead of traditional transportation fuels. It enables the output of chemicals reaching 70% to 80% of a barrel of crude oil producing chemical feedstock as opposed to 8~10% in a non-integrated refinery complex.
In the dilemma of diminishing returns on refined oil products, crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) technology could be the next step forward for refiners.
Crude oil refining & petrochemical integration
The new refining capacities in the Middle East and Asia are focusing on refining & chemical integration in recent years.
The integrated refinery-petrochemical complex, such as PetroRabigh in Saudi Arabia, produce about 17-20% of naphtha for chemicals per barrel of oil.
Crude oil producing maximum chemicals:
Hengli Petrochemical refining & chemical integration project can convert about 42% per barrel of crude oil to chemicals.
Besides Hengli, some other mega-refiners started in recent years could convert crude oil to produce maximum feeds to a steam cracker with the ratio around 40-70%.
| Project | Refining capacity | PX | Ethylene | COTC conversion | Start |
| Hengli | 20 | 4.75 | 1.5 | 46% | 2018 |
| ZPC I | 20 | 4 | 1.4 | 45% | 2019 |
| Hengyi Brunei | 8 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 40% | 2019 |
| ZPC II | 20 | 5 | 2.8 | 50% | 2021 |
| Shenghong | 16 | 4 | 1.1 | 69% | 2022 |
| Aramaco/Sabic JV* | 20 | - | 3 | 45% | 2025 |
Capacity unit: million mt/year
*the timing could potentially shift; data sources: CCFGroup, related news reports
Direct processing of crude oil in steam cracking:
At present, ExxonMobil and Sinopec are the only two companies to successfully achieve industrial application of crude oil steam-cracking technology worldwide. It was officially launched as the world’s first chemical unit that processes crude oil in Singapore in 2014. The yield of ethylene + propylene is around 35%.
On November 17, 2021, it was learned from the Sinopec Information Office that Sinopec’s key project “Technology Development and Industrial Application of Ethylene Production by Cracking of Light Crude Oil” was successfully tested in its Tianjin Petrochemical. Crude oil can be directly converted into ethylene, propylene and other chemicals, realizing the first industrial application of crude oil steam cracking technology in China. The yield of chemicals reaches around 48.24%.
Direct processing of crude oil in catalytic cracking:
On April 26, the crude oil catalytic cracking technology independently developed by Sinopec was successfully tested in Yangzhou Petrochemical Company, which directly converted crude oil into light olefins, aromatics and other chemicals.
This process could convert to around 50-70% of chemicals of a barrel of crude oil.
Besides the COTC routes developed by Sinopec, the other two major oil companies are also seeking breakthroughs in oil refining & chemical industry.
PetroChina ethane cracking
| Unit:kt/year | Location | Start | Ethylene | HDPE | HDPE/LLDPE |
| Lanzhou PC | Yulin, Shaanxi | 3-Aug-21 | 800 | 400 | 400 |
| Dushanzi PC | Tarim, Xinjiang | 30-Aug-21 | 600 | 300 | 300 |
CNOOC-Fuhaichuang AGO adsorption and separation
On December 15, CNOOC Tianjin Chemical Research and Design Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CNOOC Tianjin Institute of Development) and Fujian Fuhaichuang Petrochemical Co., Ltd. signed a complete set of atmospheric gasoil (AGO) adsorption and separation technology license contract in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province.
The contract includes 2 million mt/year adsorption separation project and 500kt/year heavy aromatics lightweight project, marking the first time that China’s first diesel adsorption separation technology has realized million tons and complete sets of full-process application.
In July 2020, the technology was successfully applied for the first time in the 400kta AGO adsorption and separation industrial plant in Binzhou City, Shandong Province.
Saudi Aramco TC2C TM, CC2C TM process and Yanbu project
On January 18, 2018, Saudi Aramco, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Saudi Aramco Technologies, signed a three-party Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with CB&I, a U.S.-based leading provider of technology and infrastructure for the energy industry, and Chevron Lummus Global (CLG), a joint venture between CB&I and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., and a leading process technology licensor. The target of this process is to converting 70-80% per barrel of oil to chemicals.
On January 29, 2019, Saudi Aramco, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Saudi Aramco Technologies, today signed a Joint Development and Collaboration Agreement (JDCA) with Axens and TechnipFMC to accelerate the development and commercialization of the company’s Catalytic Crude to Chemicals (CC2C TM) technology.
CC2C TM technology has the potential to significantly increase the efficiency and yield of chemicals production, converting more than 60% of a barrel of crude oil into chemicals.
In October 2020, SABIC announced that it was reevaluating and likely expanding its vision for the crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) project in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia with the integration of existing infrastructure.
The company stated to the Saudi stock exchange that it plans to expand this project alongside Saudi Aramco“to include existing development programs of advancing crude to chemicals technologies as well as through integrating existing facilities”as a means of maximizing value in the face of current market risks. Earlier this year, Aramco purchased a 70% stake in SABIC and since then both companies have significantly reduced its capex plans due to the COVID-19 impact.
The Yanbu COTC project was initially envisioned three years ago to process 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil feedstock into 9 million tons per year of chemical and base oil products, with a startup anticipated in 2025. That date could potentially shift in the face of this redirection, and the expected project cost of $20 billion is expected to come down as the project eschews the building of a new plant and rely on existing facilities nearby instead.
Reliance Industries to Invest in Indian COTC Complex
Reliance Industries plans to invest $ 9.8 billion in a crude-oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex at the company’s Jamnagar site in India, according to Chemical Week report in November 2019.
Reliance intends to build COTC units including a multi-feed steam cracker and multi-zone catalytic cracking (MCC) unit. The company also plans to convert the site’s existing fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit to a high-severity FCC (HSFCC) or Petro FCC unit, to maximize ethylene and propylene yields.
The MCC/HSFCC complex will have combined capacity for 8.5 million metric tons/year (Mln mt/yr) of ethylene and propylene, and total extraction capacity for 3.5 Mln mt/yr of benzene, toluene, and xylenes. It will also have combined capacity for 4.0 Mln mt/yr of para-xylene (p-xylene) and ortho-xylene. The steam cracker will have combined capacity for 4.1 Mln mt/yr of ethylene and propylene, and feed crude C4s to a 700kt/year butadiene extraction plant.
Post time: Dec-31-2021