Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan and trading house Mitsui & Co plan to build apetrochemical plant in the United States at a cost of up to 100 billion yen (US$1.05 bln), using ethylene supplies from Dow Chemical Co , as per the Nikkei business daily.
The complex for making surfactants and alpha-olefins with capacity of around 300,000 metric tpa (330,693 tons) could come online as early as 2017. It would be situated next to a planned Dow plant in Texas slated for launch in 2017 that makes low-cost ethylene from cheap North American shale gas. U.S. natural gas prices are currently US$3.85 per mmBtu, well below Asian spot LNG prices of US$16.15 per mmBtu. U.S. chemical industry trade groups expect prices to remain low for years due in part to ramped up production from the shale reserves.
19-Mar-13 
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