S-Oil‘s Shaheen project construction site at the Onsan plant in the southeastern port city of Ulsan / Courtesy of S-Oil
By Park Jae-hyuk
S-Oil’s Shaheen project is set to become a key driver of growth for the domestic petrochemical industry, which is grappling with slowing global demand, large-scale capacity expansions in China and persistent regional oversupply.
The project, with a total investment of 9.25 trillion won ($6.41 billion), is 55 percent complete and is scheduled to be finished in the first half of 2026. Once operational in the latter half of the year, it will annually produce 1.8 million tons of ethylene, 770,000 tons of propylene, 200,000 tons of butadiene and 280,000 tons of benzene.
S-Oil plans to deliver these chemicals from Shaheen’s cost-competitive, energy-efficient facilities to local downstream businesses through a dedicated pipeline. Long-term supply contracts with petrochemical companies in the Onsan National Industrial Complex in the southeastern port city of Ulsan are already underway, enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic petrochemical value chain.
The Shaheen project is expected to improve the competitiveness of Korea’s downstream petrochemical sector, fostering capacity expansions and generating positive economic impact.
“Downstream businesses will be able to save transportation costs within the value chain through timely and stable supply of feedstock, which will eventually create a competitive petrochemical industry cluster,” an S-Oil official said.
This will work in favor of the local economy and national industrial competitiveness in the longer term.
The project involves building a thermal crude-to-chemicals (TC2C) facility to convert crude directly into petrochemical feedstock, a steam cracker for ethylene production and storage tanks at S-Oil’s Ulsan Complex in the Onsan National Industrial Complex.
Shaheen is poised to gain a competitive edge with advanced technologies, including TC2C, which will be commercialized for the first time. This process enhances petrochemical feedstock production, reducing carbon intensity. Developed with Aramco’s technology, TC2C achieves three to four times higher feedstock yield than conventional methods.
Energy efficiency is another focus. The project will achieve top-percentile energy intensity in the industry, reducing carbon emissions. S-Oil plans to build a 150-megawatt natural gas turbine generation plant, improving internal energy efficiency and flexibility while saving costs. Waste heat recovery boilers will reduce carbon emissions by utilizing high-temperature exhaust gases to produce steam.
