Maoming Petrochemical: Reducing ethylene production while increasing diesel output – prioritizing market stability over profits

Thread Content

This post was last edited by chengkang on 2009-10-2 at 18:23. Maoming Petrochemical: Reducing ethylene production to increase diesel output; sacrificing profits to safeguard the market. As one of China Petrochemical’s largest refining and chemical companies, Maoming Petrochemical sacrificed profits to protect the market, and in accordance with its headquarters’ instructions, it promptly implemented emergency measures to cut ethylene production and increase diesel output by 40,000 tons. Starting from November 26, the increased production of diesel was put on the market in regions such as Guangdong; the daily output of diesel reached 15,000 to 20,000 tons. It is expected that more than 50,000 tons of diesel will be produced by the end of the year, which has played an important role in alleviating the current shortage of diesel. The senior management of Sinopec gave full affirmation to this. Wang Tianpu, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the group company and president of the joint-stock company, instructed: The implementation was rapid; very good. Zhang Jianhua, a member of the Party group of the group company and senior vice president of the joint-stock company, issued the following instruction: Maoming Petrochemical has considered the overall situation, acted with responsibility, and actively implemented the headquarters’ requirements regarding ensuring market supply; it has made great efforts to increase diesel production, and its actions are commendable and timely. Praise is given to them. Sinopec has taken a series of emergency measures to alleviate the current shortage in the supply of refined oil products, including requiring Maoming Petrochemical to reduce its ethylene production and increase diesel output by 40,000 tons. Upon receiving the instruction, Manager Li Anxi of Maoming Petrochemical immediately convened an emergency meeting to decide that it was necessary to prioritize market retention even at the cost of financial losses. The production of ethylene was reduced by 10,000 tons, resulting in a loss of 20 million yuan; concurrently, 40,000 tons more of diesel raw materials were used, and production was organized according to a plan aimed at maximizing diesel output, so as to ensure that the target of producing 40,000 tons more diesel was met. The refining division of Maoming Petrochemical carefully organized efforts to increase diesel production, urging all employees of the plant to recognize the importance of boosting refined oil output as part of the social responsibility of a key state-owned enterprise to stabilize the market. They made every effort to overcome the challenges associated with increasing diesel production, and implemented three measures to achieve this goal: the first was to ensure the safe operation of the facilities at high load levels. As the main refining units operate beyond their designed capacity, safe production faces severe challenges. The leadership of the refining division led the office staff to go to the production sites to strengthen safety management. Managers stayed at the plant sites, operators carried out their tasks with precision, and inspection frequencies were increased to promptly identify and address safety hazards, ensuring that the main plants operated safely and stably. Second is the application of advanced technologies to increase diesel production. By applying deep processing techniques to increase the yield of diesel components, some of the existing wax oil and heavy oil stocks are further processed into diesel and gasoline. At the same time, the blending process for diesel pipelines was improved, which not only ensured that the diesel met quality standards before leaving the factory but also accelerated the blending process and increased the volume of diesel produced and shipped. Third, optimize resource allocation by increasing diesel raw materials. In addition to reducing ethylene production and diverting 40,000 tons of feedstock previously used for ethylene production to diesel manufacturing, Maoming Petrochemical has also shifted resources such as Carbon 5 and Carbon 9, which were originally used in chemical production, to increasing diesel output. It is reported that since October, the refining operations at Maoming Petrochemical have been operating at a level of 1.2 million tons per month, which exceeds the designed capacity. By mid-November, more than 1.1 million tons of products such as gasoline and diesel had been supplied to the market, representing a production increase of over 50,000 tons compared to the targets set by Sinopec.