Target of “Turnaround in Over 4 Years” Achieved for the First Time


The commercial operation of Fujian Refining & Ethylene Integrated Project was achieved on August 26, 2009. It is the first joint venture refining and ethylene integrated project in China at that time with a total investment of RMB40billion. It has been operating for 1,514 days by October 20, 2013. No unit was shut down for overhaul and defect elimination since the plant was put into operation. It is the first refining and ethylene integrated project to achieve “Turnaround every 4 years” in China and will try to achieve the target of “Turnaround every 5 years”.

We achieved the target of “Turnaround in over 4 years” for Fujian Refining & Ethylene Integrated Project with the shutoff of feedstock and cool down of 800ktpa Steam Cracker on October 20, 2013 and entered the critical implementation stage of the turnaround & revamp, structure adjustment, and elimination of potential environmental hazards etc.

     “We will carry out the shutdown and turnaround and will implement revamp for some units as per the schedule though the chemical products are sold well in the market and we have considerable gross margins as this is related to the cost-effectiveness and reliability of the units in the next operation period. It is our expectation that we will be able to remove the bottlenecks, achieve energy optimization of the units, elimination of potential hazards, environmental compliance, upgrading of oil products quality and profit maximization through the turnaround and revamp and ensure the stable, continuous, and efficient operation of the units and equipment in the next 5 years.” FREP Chairman Lu Dong emphasized at the Turnaround/Revamp Mobilization Meeting.

The entire plant was shut down on October 20, 2013 as per the schedule to implement the turnaround & revamp, technical measures and elimination of potential hazards etc. All refining and ethylene units and utilities are involved, mainly including 78 units/sections. It is anticipated that the total cost will exceed RMB2billion and about 12,000 people will participate in the event with a duration of 52 days. This is an arduous task. It will be a systematic shutdown and turnaround/revamp of a large scale refining and chemical integrated enterprise in China’s petrochemical history, which will be the most difficult one with the largest number of units and tasks.

President Lu Dong said that this shutdown and turnaround/revamp is related to the long term development of the company. We will lay a solid foundation for building FREP into a first-class petrochemical company in Pacific Asia region through the turnaround and revamp as required by the shareholders.

We are fully “prepared” to organize this turnaround properly. We started to make plans for the turnaround and revamp 2 years in advance, in personnel organization, safety training, material supply, construction preparations and logistics guarantee etc. We have conducted coordination meetings on turnaround and revamp on a number of occasions to coordinate and solve any issues in turnaround schedule, manpower, tools and equipment on a timely basis and urged the purchase and delivery of materials and equipment required by the turnaround and revamp.

We have highlighted the introduction and implementation of advanced philosophies and good practices for the shutdown and turnaround/revamp and have raised the targets and requirements of “zero accident, zero injury and zero pollution” etc and further reinforced the supervision of safety and quality.

We have implemented PTW procedure strictly considering the large number of work points and areas and potential risks involved in the turnaround. We have supervised and inspected every overhaul tasks in terms of permit management and safety measures on the jobsite one by one and briefed at the Daily Turnaround Coordination Meeting. Safety personnel have reviewed the critical activities considering the characteristics of each stage and have further specified the safety management of the direct activities including hot work, confined space entry, lifting operation, working at height and temporary power supply etc which will be monitored strictly. At the same time, good safety performance and safe acts were recognized and “Zero tolerance” policy was implemented to ensure that safety is taken as No.1 priority during the turnaround and revamp.

FREP has adopted centralized management and provided progress bulletins during the turnaround and revamp and consolidated the progress of the turnaround items which are indicated on the bulletins every day. The manpower and work sequence are adjusted based on the progress of the turnaround and revamp. We ask time from the critical paths and ask resources from the non-critical paths. Schedule recovery and quick follow-up measures have been taken on a timely basis to ensure that the construction progress can meet the requirements of the milestones.

FREP CPC Committee has launched “Adding a touch of glamour to the party flag, making contributions to the turnaround and revamp” party-building theme activity in combination of the party’s mass line education activity. The party members wear the party emblems to show their identity and play their roles as models and pioneers. They worked continuously without day off and advocated the spirit of “enduring hardship to fight and be eager to make contributions” to advance the progress of the turnaround and revamp and ensure to meet the schedule. In the meantime, the respective business teams have carried out “6 Competitions and 1 Guarantee” labor competition to ensure that the overhaul tasks can be completed efficiently with high quality.