CSPC enjoys successful

start-up of its $4.3 billion

petrochemicals complex
CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited, hereinafter referred to as
CSPC, has successfully started up its giant petrochemicals complex in Daya Bay,
Guangdong Province, China. Building a large and complex petrochemicals plant is
an enormous undertaking, but the greatest tests often come during the commissioning
and start-up process. Passing this vital milestone without any serious problems
represents a major achievement.
Developed in
response to the
rapidly growing
demand in China
for petrochemicals,
the $4.3-billion
project has involved
one of the largest
ever start-ups.
The processing
complex covers 2.6 km2 and will yield around
2.3 million tonnes of product per year. CSPC
needed a smooth start-up to meet product
delivery commitments and to ensure operational
safety. Any delay could mean substantial lost
revenues and loss of reputation.
The project is an integrated chemicals complex
with steam and electricity generation, and
storage, handling and shipping facilities, as
well as an ethylene cracker, which can process
feedstocks ranging from light naphtha to heavy
condensate. The complex includes units to
manufacture styrene monomer, propylene oxide,
ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol, propylene
glycol, polyols, polypropylene and high- and
low-density polyethylene. The huge size of the
complex presented tremendous challenges for
the commissioning team.
Initiatives
The project management realised that detailed
preparation was essential for successful start-up
and so requested Shell Global Solutions to help
them put an operations implementation plan
(OIP) in place. There were three versions of
the OIP in the Daya Bay project. The high-level
denition was established in the rst version of
the OIP and a detailed plan was produced by
the end of the project in the OIP-3. The overall
high-level schedule was dened during the
feasibility studies, the key issues were developed
in time and the critical paths were addressed
and set out in a detailed integrated schedule
that included commissioning and start-up
activities.
The OIP
encompasses Shell
Global Solutions
Flawless

start-up
initiative (FSI).
The FSI process
is based on early
identication of
potential aws
in plant and
equipment during start-up and putting tools and
activities in place to help mitigate the numbers
and effects of those aws. The OIP focuses on
organisation and processes, and the FSI focuses
on the plant and the equipment. The OIPFSI
process has been developed from successful
practices and lessons learned from previous
start-ups, and is based around several key
quality areas (Qs). One of the important features
of the OIP-FSI process was having a
separate member of the CSPC staff to drive
implementation of each of the agreed activities
and take responsibility for one of the key
quality areas, for example, integrity, operability
or safety.
Client verdict
Jean Louis Bilhou, manufacturing director, CSPC,
says, The transition from construction to
commissioning is usually a difcult period, but
the normal trials were magnied by the scale of
the Daya Bay project. A total of 3000 systems
needed to be tested and handed over while
plants were still under construction and 20,000
workers were on-site. The concept of system
ownership has greatly helped in achieving an
excellent level of quality in commissioning and
start up.
Martin van Uden, lead coordinating process
engineer, CSPC, says, The site-wide
process integration of the individual
engineering, procurement and construction
projects has been achieved by using site
integration management tools to plan the
commissioning and start-up and connect all the
logical process interfaces. This process has been
instrumental in helping detect and solve schedule
disconnects.

Flawless is a Shell Group trademark.

Gerard de Nazelle, technology manager, CSPC,
says, This success is due in part to the quality of
design and construction, the plants
operational readiness and in part to the skills
and competence of the operational staff, who
are extremely motivated; there has been an
outstanding atmosphere of cooperation. We
received excellent support in all areas from Shell
Global Solutions, which was based on its
experience of previous challenges and successes
in other large projects.
Benets
CSPC successfully started up the plant on time
and on budget. The OIP helped the project de-
velopers and owners to arrive at a documented
basis from which to develop the facility and also
helped the organisation to be ready to receive
the facility by the end of the project.
Please contact Shell Global Solutions for
further information:
E-mail us at: shellglobalsolutions@shell.com
Or visit our website at:
www.shell.com/globalsolutions
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