LyondellBasell posts 27% surge Q2-2014 profits

03-Sep-14

LyondellBasell has seen a 27% surge in its profit for second-quarter 2014, on gains across all segments, especially the Olefins & Polyolefins – Americas division. The company envisions its margins to be supported by strong production of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) in the U.S, as per Zacks.com. The company continues to benefit from favorable North American natural gas environment and is executing its expansion projects to leverage the U.S. NGLs advantage. Plans are underway to construct a world scale plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast for producing propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA), leveraging the shale gas boom in the region. The plant, which is expected to go on stream in 2019, will have annual capacity of 900 million pounds of PO and 2 billion pounds of TBA and its derivatives. The company also remains on track with its ethylene expansion projects. The company’s multi-plant ethylene expansion program, which started last year, represents a total investment of approx US$1.3 bln across its Channelview, La Porte and Corpus Christi facilities in Texas which benefit from shale gas production. The expansion program, when in full swing, is expected to expand annual ethylene capacity by an estimated 1.85 bln pounds for an aggregate projected capacity of 11.8 bln pounds in North America. It's methanol plant at Channelview along with its other major debottleneck projects (including expansion at La Porte) are expected to bring in new capacity at considerably lower cost than building new facilities. LyondellBasell expects to start production from the La Porte ethylene expansion project in the third quarter.