With numerous new oil, gas and petrochemical projects either beginning or underway, China is proving to be a very lucrative location for high-tech control and automation solution providers.

China is home to some of the biggest oil, gas and petrochemical projects ever seen. As the country is keen to invest in the very latest and best technology available, companies that supply advanced control and automation solutions are winning huge contracts.
One of the latest, won by Emerson Process Management and worth US$30m, is to supply Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals Company with equipment for what is expected to be the world's most highly optimised petrochemical facility (Fig. 1).
SECCO is a US$2.7 billion joint venture between BP, Sinopec and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation.
Emerson will integrate its PlantWeb digital architecture, Asset Optimisation technologies, and services for the new ten-plant facility, which will manufacture 2.3m t/y of chemical products when it comes on stream in 2005. The main products include 900 000 t/y of ethylene, 600 000 t/y of polyethylene,250 000 t/y of polypropylene, 500 000 t/y of styrene, 300 000 t/y of polystyrene, 260 000 t/y of acrylonitrile, 200 000 t/y of aromatics and90 000 t/y of butadiene.
Located in Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, this will be the world's largest installation of FOUNDATION fieldbus technology. PlantWeb will provide the platform for collecting, analysing, and sharing operations and diagnostics information to the 750 operations, engineering, and maintenance personnel manning the SECCO site.
When fully operational in 2005, more than 23 000 FOUNDATION fieldbus devices and10 DeltaV digital automation systems within the PlantWeb architecture will control the naphtha-fed ethylene cracker and nine downstream derivative plants.
"Our site is being constructed using the most advanced chemical production technologies available. It will be the most highly optimised petrochemical facility in the world," said SECCO project director Zhang Zhi Liang. "For SECCO to meet that objective, we needed to select an equally advanced process control system architecture. We have chosen Emerson and we believe that Emerson's PlantWeb is our best choice."
Emerson will arm each of the 10 plants with a DeltaV digital automation system that collectively will manage over 80 000 I/O points and communicate with over 23 000 FOUNDATION fieldbus devices, including Rosemount and Micro Motion transmitters, and Fieldvue digital valve controllers.
AMS predictive maintenance software integrated within the DeltaV system will enable SECCO to maximise up-time and plant performance, utilising a rich array of device diagnostics and software applications enabled by the intelligence of Emerson's field instrumentation.
"Emerson was also selected for its strong presence in China and local capability to fully support a project of this magnitude: the company is providing engineering, integration, and project management leadership for this project from its Pudong (Shanghai) facility," said SECCO project director Jack Brinly.
"Using our DeltaV systems, we will be able to give appropriate SECCO personnel access to device, equipment, and process health information, no matter where they are physically located on the site. This capability helps ensure SECCO can engage the right people in the minimum amount of time, thus helping to ensure plant activities are optimised to support operational excellence," said SECCO operations director Paul Bowdler.

Emerson will manage instrumentation, control, and safety system responsibilities, including design and engineering, training, commissioning, and startup. The company will also work closely with the engineering and procurement firms serving SECCO on this project to ensure common standards and approaches are successfully deployed across the site and work to minimise start-up time and maintain project timing.
After start up, Emerson's duties are expected to include ongoing control strategy improvement, control loop analysis and problem resolution,on-going training, periodic product revisions and upgrades, and spare parts management.
"We are honoured by SECCO's choice of Emerson and look forward to applying our total solutions capability to help them reach their goal of world-class production capability," added John Berra, president, Emerson Process Management.

Fiscal gas measurement

Emerson will also perform fiscal gas measurement for the US$8.9 billion PetroChina west-east natural gas pipeline (WEPP) that will transport more thanUS$4 billion of gas annually.
In what is believed to be the largest project awarded in China for custody transfer measurement, Emerson Process Management has been selected to supply an ultrasonic custody transfer flow measurement solution for the pipeline.
Ranked as one of the largest pipelines to be built in the world, the 4000 km pipeline will transport natural gas from the Tarim Basin in the northwest region of Xijiang to Shanghai, China's largest city.
Engineered using Daniel flow measurement equipment, the Emerson contract value is estimated to be US$7m.
PetroChina has completed a joint framework agreement with Shell, ExxonMobil, Gazprom, Hong Kong and China Gas for participation in the project.
Accurate, reliable custody transfer measurement is critical for fiscal accounting and taxation purposes. Even small errors in daily metering have significant financial impact.
"Emerson was selected because of its commitment to the China market and its tremendous fiscal gas measurement experience with Daniel solutions," said Chen Xiwu, vice president of the WEPP project. "Transporting more than US$4 billion of gas annually, we need to insure that our custody transfer measurement system is as accurate and reliable as possible. Emerson's Daniel flow measurement equipment will meet our needs. We are also impressed with Emerson Process Management's commitment over issues like product quality, engineering services and delivery terms."
Emerson is to supply 13 Daniel SeniorSonic ultrasonic custody transfer metering skids, including Danalyzer gas analyser systems and control room based data collection and management systems. The metering skids will be installed and operational for the proposed 2004 initial delivery of gas to the Shanghai region.

System integration services

Meanwhile, in a move designed to maximise focus and accelerate growth, Beijing-based software development company SunwayWorld and Florida-based LiMS have signed a strategic partnership to bring a powerful laboratory information management system (LIMS) to China's emerging petrochemical projects.
Known as StarLIMS, it enables petrochemical companies to generate and record quality information, accessible by users at all technical levels. The system exposes ultimate flexibility to enable changes that reflect new business needs with out endangering the ability to perform future upgrades.
China is rapidly closing the gap with leading western markets in regard to consumption of petrochemical products. According to a forecast report, China will consume 260 million tons of crude oil by 2005, 140 million tons of oil products, about15 million tons of ethylene, 9.1 million tons of synthetic fibre, and 10.5 million tons of synthetic fibre raw materials.
"We are confident that 2003 will start a boom period for China's petroleum and petrochemical market as rapid economic growth will demand an increase for oil and petrochemical products," saidLi Yanjie president of SunwayWorld. "StarLIMSproven experience in five of the top 10 global oil companies, grants us an immeasurable head start in achieving our goal of becoming a one stop solutions company for leading petrochemical enterprises in China."