ExxonMobil says in talks to buy
Singapore's Jurong Aromatics
Send a link to a friend
[April 05, 2017]
By Florence Tan and Seng Li Peng
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - ExxonMobil <XOM.N>
said on Wednesday it is in talks to buy a refining-petrochemical complex
in Singapore that could boost its fuel and chemical production in Asia.
"We can confirm that we are currently negotiating with the receiver for
Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd to acquire JAC's assets on Jurong
Island," an ExxonMobil spokeswoman said.
"While progress is being made, no agreement has been reached yet," she
said.
The U.S. oil company is the frontrunner to buy JAC which went into
receivership in September 2015, Thomson Reuters publication Project
Finance International reported on Tuesday.
Borelli Walsh had been appointed the receivers and managers of JAC by
lender BNP Paribas. Lotte Chemical Corp <011170.KS> said in March that
it had dropped out of the race to buy JAC.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Apr/05/images/ads/current/New_Holland_sda_daily_FARM_2017.png)
Costing $2.4 billion, JAC's condensate splitter and petrochemical units
started operations in Asia in 2014 to produce paraxylene, a raw material
for textiles and bottles, to meet China's demand.
Singapore is already ExxonMobil's biggest paraxylene production base in
the world at 1 million tonnes per year (tpy), according to its 2016
annual report. The proposed JAC acquisition will boost ExxonMobil's
paraxylene capacity to 1.8 million tpy and add another 2.5 million tpy
of oil products output.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/040517pics/news_r35.jpg)
Logos of ExxonMobil are seen in its booth at Gastech, the world's
biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017.
REUTERS/Toru Hanai
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_090916.png)
JAC's debt problems mounted amid the global commodities rout and it
stopped operations at the end of 2014 to fix a technical issue. The
plant was restarted in July 2016 under tolling agreements with BP
<BP.L> and Glencore <GLEN.L>.
Once the deal is inked, ExxonMobil could take over the purchase of
condensate for JAC from July, trade sources said.
(Reporting by Florence Tan and Seng Li Peng in SINGAPORE, and Jane
Chung in SEOUL; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Apr/05/images/ads/current/christian_village_sda_031616.png) |