As of the first half of this year, Chinas trade with countries along the belt and road has exceeded us $5 trillion, outbound direct investment has exceeded us $75 billion, and China has signed agreements with 39 countries on production capacity cooperation and joint construction. Among them, Chinas petrochemical owners have made unique contributions to promote the construction of "One Belt And One Road". Ethylene is the mother of petrochemical raw materials, in the global petrochemical industry is booming today, ethylene industry should be calm review, thinking about the future.
In the past two years, in the face of the complex situation of low international oil price fluctuations, market fluctuations and economic cyclical factors in the petrochemical industry, ethylene production enterprises have implemented the overall deployment, and achieved a double harvest in production and operation by fully stabilizing production, adjusting the structure, expanding the market, reducing costs and controlling risks. However, although the domestic economy is stable and improving, the trend of slowing demand growth and intensifying market competition is still continuing, and the production and operation situation remains grim. Ethylene domestic market is facing a rapid expansion of production capacity, production technology diversification, cracking raw materials diversification, safety and environmental protection standards continue to improve, rapid development of private enterprises and other competitive environment.
Recently held the 20th national ethylene annual conference to send a clear message: in order to achieve sustainable development, safety and green environment and upgrade the quality and efficiency of ethylene industry in Chinas recent theme.
In times of peace, thinking of danger, opportunities and challenges coexist
At present, a new round of competition has begun. Under the background of increasingly complex and fierce competition environment and the transformation of the whole national economy to high-quality development, ethylene business must achieve high-quality, effective and sustainable development.
Hao tongle, general manager of Shanghai secco petrochemical co., LTD., said that attending the annual ethylene conference made him more aware of the importance of understanding the market, grasping opportunities and exploring innovation. Only by doing market analysis and preparation in advance and constantly summarizing experiences and forging ahead can we make breakthroughs in technical cognition and practice and provide strong support for the development of ethylene industry.
Since the 13th five-year plan, CNPCs refining and chemical business has been led by refining and chemical transformation and upgrading and targeted at high-quality development, which has promoted the steady development of ethylene business. However, there are still problems such as insufficient utilization of high-quality raw materials, imprecise operation and management, and a large gap in core competitiveness. This requires us to recognize the situation, play a leading role in technology, promote the optimization of production and operation, and promote the application of core technologies.
Looking into the future, chief engineer xing yingchun of CNPC, on behalf of CNPC, said that it would do a good job in ethylene business development according to the following ideas: firstly, it would do a good job in ethylene storage and continue to focus on resource optimization and technological progress. Through concrete measures, we should strengthen regional optimization of mutual supply, improve the technical level of the equipment, adhere to strict management and fine management, and strengthen long-term operation. Second, we will increase incremental development in line with the principle of building high-quality and advanced productive forces. We will seize the historical opportunities at the peak of the petrochemical business cycle and further increase ethylene business competitiveness and efficiency.
Advance together refining and chemical integration
Refining is the basis of the development of petrochemical industry. By adopting the integrated layout of refining, ethylene and aromatic hydrocarbon, the added value of crude oil processing products can be increased by 25%. At the same time, in accordance with the development of refining and petrochemical integration mode, public works and auxiliary facilities such as water supply, heat supply, power supply, energy saving, environmental protection and safety can be Shared, more than 10% of construction investment can be saved, and the effect of energy saving and emission reduction can be improved by about 15%.
At present, the overall level of refining and petrochemical integration of the national petrochemical industry is still significantly low, which restricts the further development of the overall petrochemical industry, weakens the overall level of resource utilization of the petrochemical industry in China, affects the expansion of ethylene and aromatic hydrocarbon production capacity and effective supply, and the imbalance of regional oil production and marketing increases logistics costs.
Refining and chemical integration can fundamentally improve the level of comprehensive utilization of resources and the degree of independent guarantee of basic chemical raw materials, is an effective way to improve the level of comprehensive utilization of resources, but also an important means to build a reasonable and complete petrochemical industry system and maintain national industrial security.
Experts at the meeting suggested that the existing refiners need to further reduce the output of product oil through transformation and increase the proportion of chemical light oil production; The newly-built refining capacity shall be equipped with ethylene, aromatic hydrocarbon and other chemical equipment to produce less or no product oil and more chemical products. Optimize the structure of refining capacity by optimizing and adjusting the layout of petrochemical industry; We will accelerate the formation of a number of advanced production capacities and keep Chins effective supply capacity for refining and refined oil at a reasonable level.
China international engineering consulting co., LTD., Yang Ming thought, adhere to the integration of refining, to achieve maximum mutual supply of raw materials, products, energy, interoperability, the coordinated development of upstream and downstream, focus on ensuring the increasing basic chemical raw materials demand, enhance the overall competitiveness of petrochemical industry, strive to integration rate increased to 15% in 2020, to 25% in 2025.
Three broad directions point to the future of ethylene
In recent years, the shale gas boom in North America has provided abundant and cheap NGL feedstock, which has boosted the rapid expansion of ethylene production capacity.
In 2017, global ethylene production will reach 170 million tons/year, and domestic ethylene production will reach 23.17 million tons/year, making it the second largest ethylene producer in the world. In 2017, global ethylene production will reach 150 million tons/year, and domestic ethylene production will be 22.75 million tons/year. The global ethylene market will continue to expand in the next few years, and the demand for polyethylene and ethylene oxide in the huge Chinese market will continue to grow substantially.
In recent years, Chins ethylene raw material diversification has accelerated, in addition to naphtha as the raw material, coal, methanol, ethane and other light hydrocarbon as raw material to produce ethylene equipment increased. The structure of ethylene pyrolysis raw materials in China is heavy, and the proportion of naphtha is high.
In general, in the case of decreasing oil consumption as energy, ethylene consumption should gradually increase and will gradually become the main area of oil consumption. It is estimated that it will account for about 60% of the raw material diversification in 2035, and show a pattern of joint development with other raw materials in ethylene production diversification.
The production of high-grade engineering plastics in China is mainly owned or joint venture by foreign companies. There are also problems in the production of general synthetic resin, such as low output of special materials, low grade and fewer copolymerization products, which cannot meet the requirements of automobile, electronics, household appliances and other industries. Ethylene downstream products lack of international competitiveness of well-known brands and high-grade series of products.
Diversification, autonomy and internationalization will become the trend of ethylene development in the future. Ethylene enterprises are facing a new development environment and more complex competition environment, so how to seize the development opportunities, how to go abroad, in the process of internationalization to improve their ability level in the fierce international competition in an invincible position, need to pay special attention to.
Mutual help state-owned enterprises private common development
The sharp drop in crude oil prices and the low volatility have significantly enhanced the competitiveness of ethylene production from oil. Meanwhile, the gap of ethylene equivalent in China has been constantly widening, which has boosted the enthusiasm of new ethylene production facilities in China. Unlike in the past, the ethylene expansion has not been dominated by petrochina and sinopec, while other companies, especially private ones, have done well.
According to the plan announced at present, from 2018 to 2025, China will add 14 sets of oil-to-ethylene equipment and 14.35 million tons/year of ethylene production capacity, among which 8 sets of equipment and 8.35 million tons/year of production capacity will be added by enterprises other than state-owned enterprises.
With the completion and production of large ethylene plants in private enterprises in China, as well as the continued enthusiasm for increasing production capacity of coal (methanol) olefin production plants, ethylene production capacity will be released in a centralized way, which will pose unprecedented challenges to existing ethylene plants. How to improve the operation level of the device, improve the competitiveness of the device and the ability to resist market risks are the main challenges faced by state-owned enterprises.
"State-owned enterprises and private enterprises are not competitive, they should share resources on the same platform," said li linlin, an expert representative. Once we were the big ones and the small ones, but today we cant do this anymore. After all, there are professional skills, complementary advantages. Professional management is recommended. Those who are good at cracking dry cracking, those who are good at polyolefin dry cracking, and those who are good at water treatment clean water and sewage treatment are recommended.
The participation of private enterprises is an opportunity for ethylene industry, which should be in the spirit of sharing, openness and inclusiveness, absorb new blood, help each other, and achieve win-win cooperation between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises.
Green environmental protection and safe production cannot be ignored
At present, the global energy industry is undergoing profound changes, and clean and low-carbon energy consumption has become an inevitable trend. It is every Chineses dream to have a beautiful home with blue sky, green land and clean water.
Chinas 13th five-year plan clearly calls for deepening the energy revolution, optimizing the structure of energy supply, improving energy efficiency and building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system.
The transformation of refining and chemical production to safe, clean, green and efficient production is the need for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. Intensive has staged a series of security environmental protection laws and regulations in our country, increasingly strict regulation, increase industrial development constraints, must actively respond to Chinas refining industry, legal compliance management, at the same time will continue to increase security environmental protection, energy saving money, such as applying more advanced environmental protection technology, improve enterprise environmental protection index, etc.
"The issue of environmental protection is very important," said lu changqin, an expert. At present ethylene industry is environmental protection one is safe, very cannot, unlike us in the past bold dare to assume, had the accountability of supervisory group now, nobody dares to despise. After environmental protection is done, it is to benefit the people and do good deeds.
The advancement of industrialization, while providing rich materials for human life, has gradually become a hidden danger to personal security. Green environmental protection and safe production are safety red lines that must be adhered to as always on the road to green development.