Board of Directors of TPC Group Inc. has approved funding for the next phase of engineering to produce on-purpose butadiene, targeting the restart of its second dehydrogenation asset at the its Houston plant, coupled with construction of a TPC Group OXO-DTM production unit. These assets would produce butadiene for the North American market to meet growing market demand and address the structural shortage of supply caused by the shift from heavier to lighter cracker feed slates. This engineering phase is expected to be completed by the end of Q1-2012.
The primary feedstock for this project will be normal butane - a natural gas liquid, whose production volumes continue to increase as a result of U.S. shale gas development. Utilization of the TPC Group OXO-DTM technology allows highly competent on-purpose butadiene production, and is expected to yield up to 600 mln lbs pa with this project scalable through additional phases as the market grows.
TPC Group Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Michael Bloesch, said, "We have a 50 year history of commercial production of on-purpose butadiene and are well positioned to bring the needed additional butadiene to the marketplace. Customers have expressed a strong interest for this project, which provides long-term security of supply of a critical product to meet their growing business needs." Mike McDonnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, said, "This project represents the next step in our strategic plan of using our well positioned assets and proven technologies to enhance our operating model and drive sustainable earnings growth."
11-Aug-11 
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