ExxonMobil Buys Singapore Chemical Plant For $1.7B

ExxonMobil last week announced plans to add one of the world's top aromatics facilities to its chemical operations in Singapore later this year.

The Singapore affiliate of ExxonMobil Chemical Company reached an agreement to purchase the plant from Jurong Aromatics Corp. Terms were not disclosed, but reports placed the purchase price at about $1.7 billion.

The Jurong facility has an annual production capacity of 1.4 million metric tons, which ExxonMobil said makes it one of the largest aromatics plants in the world.

Singapore is home to ExxonMobil’s largest integrated refinery and petrochemical complex, and officials said that the deal would increase the company's annual aromatics production capacity in the country to more than 3.5 million metric tons — 1.8 million of which would be paraxylene.

The company said that the deal would bolster its offerings in key markets in Asia. Officials said that the Asia Pacific region — with its increasing wealth and burgeoning middle class — would account for an estimated 75 percent of the growth in global chemical product demand over the next decade.

“We continue to make strategic investments to ensure ExxonMobil is well positioned to meet increasing global demand for chemical products," said Matthew Aguiar, ExxonMobil Chemical's senior vice president of basic chemicals, intermediates and synthetics.