Hanwha Total Petrochemical, a 50:50 joint venture between French energy and petrochemicals company Total and South Korea’s Hanwha Group, plans to spend nearly $500 million to expand its complex in Daesan, South Korea.

The investment at the integrated refining and petrochemical complex will raise PP capacity by nearly 60% to 1.1 million t/y by the end of 2020. At the same time, the company will expand ethylene output by 10% to 1.5 million t/y.

The company said the project complements ongoing investments totaling $750 million at Daesan to increase ethylene production by 30% to 1.4 million t/y by mid-2019 and PE capacity by 50% to 1.1 million t/y by end-2019, taking advantage of competitively priced propane feedstock from shale gas developments in the US.

This additional investment will put Daesan in a position to capture margins across the propylene-PP value chain, as it does already in the ethylene-PE value chain, the company said. The extra output will also allow the complex to meet demand both locally and in Asia.

“This new investment in Daesan is fully in line with our strategy of growth in petrochemicals to meet global demand, focusing investments on our world-class facilities and leveraging competitively priced feedstock. This PP project complements our offering of high-value-added polymers to the fast-growing Asian market,” said Bernard Pinatel, president, refining and chemicals at Total.

The Paris-headquartered group is also involved in other large-scale petrochemical projects, notably in Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

In Saudi Arabia, Total and partner Saudi Aramco are developing a $5 billion complex at Al Jubail, centered on a mixed feed cracker with an ethylene capacity of 1.5 million t/y as well as downstream petrochemical units. Start-up of the complex, which will be built next to Total and Aramco’s joint venture Satorp refinery, is scheduled for 2024.

In Algeria, Total and partner Sonatrach will built a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and PP complex at Arzew. The joint venture, Sonatrach Total Entreprise Polymeres (STEP), owned 51% by Sonatrach and 49% by Total, will produce 550,000 t/y of PP, which will primarily supply markets locally and in the Mediterranean area. The companies have not given a start-up date for the plants.