September 19, 2026, Zibo, Shandong. On a newly cleared piece of land in the Qilu Petrochemical plant area, the machinery started and the 1 million tons/year ethylene plant officially started operation.

This land was not empty before. The phthalic anhydride unit, No.1 vinyl chloride unit, and No.2 atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, three old units built in the 1970s and 1980s, used to operate here. In order to allow the new devices to land, they were dismantled one by one, freeing up development space through the above method of pressing down on small ones. The old device is retired, the new device takes over, and the turn of an old factory starts from this land.

Old factory vacates land to build new equipment

Lu Oil Lu Refining, literally means Shandong Oil Shandong Refining. This proposal originates from Sinopec Shengli's strategy of adjusting the flow of crude oil: changing the previous pattern of relying on the Lu Ning pipeline to transport oil from the north to the south, processing the crude oil produced by Shengli Oilfield on site, and undertaking it by local refining enterprises such as Qilu Petrochemical, Jinan Refining and Chemical, and Shengli Petrochemical. This not only maintains the bottom line of energy supply, but also significantly reduces logistics costs.

The project was included in the national petrochemical industry planning and layout plan in November 2024 and was approved by the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission. The launch ceremony was held in Zibo on December 19 of the same year. Entering 2025, on-site demolition work will commence, and the project will shift from planning to on-site construction. The commencement of the ethylene plant this time is an important milestone for the project to move from blueprint planning to construction, marking the official entry of key facilities into the comprehensive construction stage.

Fully autonomous technical equipment

The newly built ethylene plant covers an area of about 165 acres and is the core chemical plant of Qilu Petrochemical's integrated refining and chemical industry chain. The device adopts the CBL cracking technology and low-energy ethylene separation technology with independent intellectual property rights of Sinopec, and all key equipment is domestically produced. It mainly uses naphtha, hydrogenated tail oil, and modified diesel as raw materials, with an annual processing capacity of 2.9269 million tons.

The main products are polymer grade ethylene, polymer grade propylene, mixed C4, crude cracking gasoline, cracking naphthalene fraction, ethylene tar, methane hydrogen gas (fuel gas), hydrogen gas, etc. The installation is scheduled for mechanical completion in August 2028.

Provide sufficient raw materials for downstream

Qilu Petrochemical was founded in 1966 and currently has a comprehensive refining processing capacity of 12.5 million tons per year and an ethylene production capacity of 800000 tons per year. After the new facility is completed and put into operation, it will provide the main raw materials for downstream high-pressure ethylene, polypropylene, butadiene and other facilities of the company, playing an important role in improving the company's industrial chain, enhancing product competitiveness and ensuring the supply of chemical raw materials.keywords:New energy information network

From transporting oil from the north to the south to Shandong oil and refining, from the retirement of old facilities to the breakthrough of millions of tons of ethylene, this veteran refining enterprise, which was born alongside Shengli Oilfield, is gradually laying out the blueprint for transformation and upgrading into reality.Editor/Yang Meiling