S-Oil announced on the 17th that the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) progress rate of the 'Shahin Project,' the largest in the history of the domestic petrochemical industry, has exceeded 55% and is progressing smoothly toward completion in the first half of 2026.
The Shahin Project is a business that involves constructing facilities such as TC2C (which directly converts crude oil into petrochemical raw materials), steam crackers (ethylene production facilities), and storage facilities on an approximately 480,000 square meter site adjacent to the S-Oil Ulsan Complex. A factory that produces high-value polymer products using ethylene produced from the steam cracker as a raw material is also under construction in the Dongwon area of Ulju County. A total of 9.258 trillion won will be invested.
TC2C was developed with the core technology of Saudi Aramco, S-OIL's parent company, and is expected to be commercially operational for the first time in the world through the Shahin Project. It applies new separation and catalyst technologies to refine raw materials like crude oil, achieving yields of petroleum fractions for petrochemical raw materials that are 3 to 4 times better than existing facilities.
The Shahin Project plant will begin commercial operations in the second half of next year and will annually produce basic petroleum fractions, including ethylene (1.8 million tons), propylene (770,000 tons), butadiene (200,000 tons), and benzene (280,000 tons). It also plans to produce polyethylene (LLDPE 880,000 tons, HDPE 440,000 tons), which is used in the production of various synthetic materials including plastics.
S-Oil believes that the Shahin Project will contribute to enhancing the fundamental competitiveness of the domestic petrochemical industry, which is facing difficulties due to sluggish growth in global demand and ongoing oversupply in the region caused by China's large-scale facility expansions. The company plans to supply relatively inexpensive basic fractions produced at the Shahin Project directly to domestic petrochemical downstream companies mainly through pipelines.
An S-Oil official said, "Considering the energy reduction and carbon reduction technologies of the Shahin Project and the level of operational efficiency, we expect it to be a critical turning point in enhancing the fundamental competitiveness for the continued growth of the heavy chemical industry, which has served as a backbone of the national economy."