Some impact felt by US ethylene producers after fire at Enterprise

10-Feb-11

Major ethylene producers in the US Gulf Coast are reporting minimal-to-moderate impact on production resulting from Tuesday's fire at an Enterprise site in Mont Belvieu, Texas, as per Platts. This could change either way once the fire is extinguished and the extent of the damage becomes clearer. LyondellBasell is reported to be operating its La Porte plant (cracker capacity estimated at 1.75 bln lb/year) at reduced rates. In a Tuesday filing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the company warned the unit could be shutdown "as a result of lost pipeline feed pressure due to a fire at a third party supplier facility." Westlake Chemical, (ethylene production 2.3 bln lb/year) in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was heard to have been impacted as well as its feedstock flow was affected. The company, however, said it was still assessing the situation along with Enterprise. The company has other sources of supply, and as of now, its units in Lake Charles are running. ExxonMobil, which operates crackers in Houston (755 mln lb/year), Baytown (4.1 bln lb/year), Beaumont (1.8 bln lb/year) and Baton Rouge (1.9 bln lb/year; Louisiana), and ChevronPhillips, which has plants in Cedar Bayou (1.75 bln lb/year), Port Arthur (1.8 bln lb/year) and Sweeny (4 bln lb/year), reported minimal impact in feedstock supply and supply resulting from the Enterprise fire.