ExxonMobil Chemical Company announced last Monday that it is expanding the capacity of its global hydrocarbon fluid assets by more than 250,000 tons per year at its world-scale petrochemical sites in Antwerp, Belgium; Baytown, Texas; and Jurong Island, Singapore.

The capacity expansions will help the company produce higher volumes of its ExxsolTM series of differentiated fluids, as well as a broader portfolio of hydrocarbon fluids such as Isopar™ and Solvesso™.

“As a leading global supplier of petrochemical products, ExxonMobil Chemical is committed to meeting the growing global demand for high-performance modern hydrocarbon fluids," said Prasanna Joshi, global fluids marketing manager at ExxonMobil Chemical Company. “We understand the strategic importance of developing differentiated products that both provide our customers with customized solutions to meet their application needs, as well as maximize shareholder value.”

Demand for hydrocarbon fluids is increasing globally due to strong growth in the industrial sector, coupled with the need to comply with health, safety and environmental regulations such as the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.

The latest capacity expansions follow a series of investments made by ExxonMobil Chemical in Europe and Singapore over the past two years, including the startup of an Isopar production unit at its petrochemical complex in Fawley, UK. According to Joshi, more than 60 percent of the additional hydrocarbon fluid capacity is already online, with the remaining amount expected by early 2019.

“We are especially proud that we have been able to leverage our integrated, world-class fluids manufacturing capabilities to carry out these expansions,” Joshi said. “We are capitalizing on our global resources to better serve the needs of our customers – reliably and efficiently.”

ExxonMobil Chemical offers a broad portfolio of differentiated hydrocarbon fluids specifically designed for a wide range of applications including drilling mud oil, mining, agricultural chemicals, metal working, polymerization process, water treatment, adhesives, coatings and reprographics.

ExxonMobil Chemical, with petrochemical manufacturing and/or marketing operations in more than 150 countries around the world, produces products that include olefins, aromatics, fluids, synthetic rubber, polyethylene, polypropylene, oriented polypropylene packaging films, plasticizers, synthetic lubricant basestocks and additives for fuels and lubricants.