March 24 (yarnsandfibers) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday that it has successfully started up its new ethylene plant at Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex in Singapore on schedule.
The plant, with an annual production capacity of 800,000 metric tons of ethylene, produced on-specification ethylene March 22, it said in a statement.
Shell previously said the ethylene plant would begin operations in the first quarter of 2010.
While about half of the ethylene will serve as feedstock for the company's monoethylene glycol plant that was commissioned in November on Singapore's Jurong Island, most of the remainder will likely be sold, increasing regional ethylene supply.
The ethylene plant will feed mainly on hydrowax, a form of residual fuel, while also taking in heavy gasoil, liquefied petroleum gas, and small portions of naphtha, all of with will be mainly available from Shell's existing 500,000-barrel-a-day refinery on Bukom Island, Shell officials have said.