Chevron Phillips plans to pursue ethane cracker and ethylene derivatives project is US Gulf Coast

15-Dec-11

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips Chemical) has completed several key elements of the feasibility study announced earlier this year and plans to pursue a project to construct a world-scale ethane cracker and ethylene derivatives facilities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. It’s existing Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas, would be the location of the new ethylene unit. The company has executed agreements with Shaw Energy & Chemicals to design a 1.5 mln tpa (3.3 billion lbs/year) ethane cracker utilizing proprietary Shaw technology. Chevron Phillips Chemical's proprietary technologies would be utilized for the construction of two new polyethylene facilities, each with an annual capacity of 500,000 metric tons (1.1 bln lbs). The new polyethylene units would be located either at the Cedar Bayou facility or a site nearby the Chevron Phillips Chemical Sweeny facility in Old Ocean, Texas. A final site selection decision for these units is anticipated during the first quarter of 2012. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greenhouse gas and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) air permit applications for the new cracker would be filed this week. Cella indicated that the project is on track for final approvals in 2013. If approved, the USGC Petrochemicals Project is expected to create approximately 400 long-term direct jobs and 10,000 engineering and construction jobs. The estimated completion date for the USGC Petrochemicals Project is 2017.