Total Petrochemical, a joint venture of South Korea’s Hanwha Group and France’s Total SA, plans to expand the Desean refining/petrochemicals integrated facility in South Korea to increase ethylene production capacity by 30% to 1.4 million tons/year. Daesan, one of Total’s six world-class integrated platforms and a strategic asset for Hanwha, includes a condensate splitter, steam cracker and polymers, styrene and aromatics units. “The extension will significantly increase the site’s flexibility, enabling it to process competitively priced propane feedstock, which is abundantly available, notably due to the shale gas revolution in the United States,” the company said. The expansion, expected to be completed by mid-2019, would add ethylene production for local demand and supply the nearby fast-growing Chinese market, a significant importer.