Editorial Comment: The Top Projects winners of 2022 have been announced
Each year, Hydrocarbon Processing honors the top refining and petrochemical projects of the year.
Each year, Hydrocarbon Processing honors the top refining and petrochemical projects of the year. These capital investments have significantly contributed to the expansion of the hydrocarbon processing industry and have been instrumental in providing new refined and petrochemical products to traditional and emerging markets.
Using Gulf Energy Information’s Global Energy Infrastructure database, our editors select several capital projects in each sector as finalists for the Top Projects award. Once selected, readers of Hydrocarbon Processing can vote on the top project in each sector.
This year, the editors announced 10 nominees—five refining and five petrochemical projects—for this prestigious award. This year’s nominees represented nearly $50 B in capital investments, more than 600,000 bpd in new refining capacity and more than 11 MMtpy in additional petrochemicals production.
Over the past 2 mos, hundreds of readers voted online to select the top refining and petrochemical projects of 2022. Unlike previous years, both categories had ties. Despite extending voting times, the outcomes in both categories remained the same. Therefore, for the first time ever, there are two Top Project winners in both the refining and petrochemicals categories.
Top Project: Petrochemicals
The following projects have been selected as the Top Projects in the petrochemicals category in 2022:
- LyondellBasell’s propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) complex (Channelview, Texas, U.S.): The nearly $2.5-B project consists of two plants to produce 1 MMtpy of TBA and 470,000 tpy of PO. Once completed in Q1 2023, the complex will be the largest PO/TBA complex in the world.
- Long Son Petrochemicals complex (Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Vietnam): The $5.4-B complex will produce nearly 1 MMtpy of ethylene, as well as propylene, polypropylene and polyethylene, once operational. Despite a fire at the facility in September, the complex’s completion is still scheduled for 2023.
Top Project: Refining
The following projects have been selected as the Top Projects in the refining category in 2022:
- Indian Oil Corp. Ltd.’s Barauni refinery expansion (BR9) project (Begusarai District, Bihar, India): The nearly $1.8-B project will expand the Barauni refinery by 3 MMtpy to 9 MMtpy. Once completed in Q2 2023, the upgraded refinery will produce transportation fuels that adhere to India’s Bharat Stage-6 fuel standard.
- Neste’s Singapore refinery expansion project (Singapore): The company is investing nearly $1.5 B to expand its Singapore refinery. The project—to be completed by Q2 2023—will add 1 MMtpy of sustainable aviation fuels production, as well as renewable raw materials for polymers and chemicals production.
Hydrocarbon Processing would like to congratulate the winners of the 2022 Top Projects awards, as well as its global readership that participated in voting for this year’s winners. HP
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