Dongming Petrochemical, located in Heze, Shandong Province, China, is reported to be in the final stages of commissioning what would be the world’s first commercial-scale unit to directly catalytically crack crude oil into olefins, known as UPC. The catalyst and process technology are reported to have been jointly developed with Shandong University.
The unit directly catalytically cracks crude oil into olefins without going through a conventional refining process. The UPC (Upgrading Petroleum to Chemicals) unit itself is reported to have a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, processing 1.06 million tonnes of crude oil annually. Auxiliary facilities are reported to include a butadiene extraction unit (100,000 tonnes/year), MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) and butene-1 units (80,000 and 50,000 tonnes/year, respectively), and a light aromatics hydrogenation unit (200,000 tonnes/year). The project is notable as what is described as the world’s first commercial-scale crude-to-olefins unit.
Investment in the core UPC pilot/demonstration unit is reported at more than 11 billion yuan, rising to approximately 22 billion yuan including downstream auxiliary facilities. Annual revenue after completion is projected at approximately 17 billion yuan. As of September 10, 2026, the project is in the final sprint stage toward startup targeted for later this year.
Dongming Petrochemical is one of China’s leading private refining and petrochemical companies, reported to have diversified beyond its traditional refining-centered business into higher-value petrochemical products such as olefins. The UPC unit is seen as a technical attempt to simplify the refining process by producing olefins directly from crude oil.
If the process of directly catalytically cracking crude oil into olefins is successfully commercialized, it could significantly simplify the conventional multi-step process of refining crude oil followed by naphtha cracking, potentially having a substantial impact on process innovation trends across the petrochemical industry. This is notable within the broader competitive landscape of Crude Oil to Chemicals (COTC) technology currently being actively discussed in the refining and petrochemical industry, as a Chinese private company has pursued world-first commercialization using proprietary technology. Global majors such as Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil are also reported to have pursued development and commercialization of similar COTC technologies, meaning the success or failure of Dongming’s commercialization could serve as a reference point in the competitive dynamics among these technology camps. The joint development with Shandong University also represents a case of process technology localization achieved through academia-industry collaboration in China. However, as this is a new commercial-scale technology, technical variables during the initial operational stabilization period also warrant attention.
Whether the targeted startup within this year is actually achieved, and how long initial operational stabilization takes, are the most important points to watch. Whether the actual post-commercialization yield and economics prove competitive relative to conventional naphtha cracking also needs to be confirmed. Whether this technology will be extended to additional units at Dongming Petrochemical or adopted by other Chinese refiners is another point of interest. How this case compares to the commercialization timelines of global majors’ COTC technologies also remains to be seen.