Singapore Needs A Cracker

Royal Dutch/Shell Group said today it will soon build a $1 billion naphtha cracker in Singapore to meet growing domestic petrochemicals demand with a targeted start-up date in 2009.

Shell expected to build a world-scale cracker of 600,000 to 900,000 tons per year, a spokeswoman said, although industry sources expect the plant to produce at least 1 million tons of ethylene a year.

Shell is likely to collaborate with the Singapore Economic Development Board to build the cracker.