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This post was last edited by Jinma Water Damage Control on 2025-10-27 at 08:37. The 1.2 million tons per year ethylene production facility at CNPC Guangxi Petrochemical was successfully commissioned for the first time – contributing to the development of a new petrochemical industry ecosystem in the southwest region characterized by leadership by key enterprises and cluster-based growth. At 14:38 on October 26, the facility began operating with feedstock, and qualified products were produced at 02:41 the following day; thus, the commissioning was successful from the first attempt. This significant milestone marks the company’s complete transformation from a \"fuel-focused\" refinery into an integrated petrochemical enterprise that produces chemical products and organic materials. It also accelerates the development of such a new industry ecosystem in the southwest region. The facility was overall contracted by Global Engineering Co., Ltd., and it utilizes large-scale ethylene production technology owned by China National Petroleum Corporation. It is capable of producing 1.2 million tons of polymeric-grade ethylene, 616,000 tons of polymeric-grade propylene, 400,000 tons of hydrogenated gasoline, and 35,000 tons of styrene per year. Additionally, it generates over 20 various chemical raw materials, products, and semi-finished goods, including hydrogen, pyrolyzed C5 and C9 compounds, as well as pyrolyzed fuel. Once put into operation, this facility will enable Guangxi Petrochemical to reduce its oil production by 3.49 million tons per year and increase its chemical product output by 3.06 million tons. Products such as high-end membrane materials and pipe materials will directly fill the gaps in domestic supply, helping to address the structural issue in China’s petrochemical industry, namely an excess of oil production relative to chemical products and a shortage of high-end products. The development history of the facility highlights “oil speed” and “oil quality”. Since work began in July 2023, the construction team has faced the climate challenges posed by high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and frequent typhoons in the Beibu Gulf. Working together with the general contractor, construction firms, supervision units, and project management entities affiliated with CNPC Engineering, and guided by the petroleum spirit (the Daqing Spirit and the Iron Man Spirit), they have strictly implemented CNPC’s \"six modernization\" principles of standardized design, centralized procurement, factory-based prefabrication, modular construction, intelligent management, and digital delivery. They have focused on controlling six key aspects: quality, safety, schedule, contracts, investment, and integrity. It took only 8 months to lift the foundations above the ground level, and 3 months to achieve construction without the use of soil. The team successfully overcame the challenges associated with lifting extremely large and heavy equipment, managing to place the 1,760-ton heavy 2nd propylene tower in position safely and accurately. This achievement marked \"nine firsts\" and set a benchmark for the construction of projects by CNPC Engineering. The commissioning and operation of the equipment reflect an even more rigorous, meticulous, and practical approach. The company strictly adheres to the principle that \"progress must yield to quality and safety,\" and has established a \"three-tier guarantee system.\" It ensures that safety and environmental protection facilities are put into use as early as possible; the oil and gas recovery facilities as well as the wastewater treatment systems began operating stably 118 days ahead of schedule, thereby ensuring zero emissions of pollutants during the testing period ； The ‘pilot first’ approach was also applied to the auxiliary systems; 17 sets of such facilities, including circulating water plants, air compression stations, and steam heating networks, were put into normal operation 122 days ahead of schedule, thereby providing solid support for the main equipment ； Finally, strict attention was paid to the preparations for testing, adhering to the \"six requirements\" standard of \"conducting individual unit tests early, ensuring comprehensive joint tests, maintaining strict integrity during purging, guaranteeing thorough system drying, carrying out loading tests steadily, and achieving good economic benefits.\" Technical personnel were organized to inspect each of the 682 moving equipment units and 18,680 process pipelines one by one. On June 9, the steam turbine for the pyrolysis gas compressor was successfully tested for the first time, achieving the best operational performance ever recorded for domestically produced 70,000-kilowatt-class ethylene steam turbines ； On June 21, the world’s first test run of a 200ms dual-frequency converter designed for an ethylene plant with a capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, aimed at controlling the ethylene compressor motors, was a complete success, achieving the optimal performance standards for motors of that power level ； On August 22, the ethylene cracking furnace was completed with its drying process, and the temperature uniformity of the furnace tubes was kept within ±5°C, laying a crucial foundation for feeding materials into the furnace. Among them, the system proposed 5 innovative optimization suggestions for properly arranging the purging process, thereby achieving \"zero water hammer\" throughout the purging process. The purging work was completed 13 days ahead of schedule, resulting in savings of approximately 18 million yuan in steam costs. As China National Petroleum Corporation’s first model project for transitioning from oil refining to integrated refining and chemical manufacturing, the Guangxi Petrochemical Ethylene Project was built around this facility, with 14 chemical processing units, 2 oil refining units, and various auxiliary facilities added as well. It was fully completed on July 14, 2025. This project not only facilitates Guangxi’s transition from basic chemical manufacturing to a high-end industry focused on new chemical materials, but it will also leverage the Western Land-Sea New Corridor to reach markets in Southwest China, South China, and ASEAN. It aims to help develop a trillion-dollar-scale cluster of green chemical material industries oriented toward ASEAN, thereby driving the development of related industries such as packaging, building materials, and the automotive sector. In the future, China National Petroleum Guangxi Petrochemical Company will focus on market demands, management improvement, and technological innovation in order to fully utilize its production capacity for chemical products. It will take advantage of the benefits offered by RCEP to expand into overseas markets, thereby fulfilling its responsibilities as a central state-owned enterprise in ensuring energy security and contributing to the development of a modern industrial system.