First in Series of LyondellBasell Ethylene Capacity Expansions Brought Online in Texas

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) (Rotterdam, South Holland) has brought roughly 850 million pounds per year of additional capacity online in its QE1 ethylene unit, located at its site in La Porte, Texas. The company completed work on a debottlenecking and two new furnace additions in June 2014, but delayed bringing the new capacity online until the last week of September.

The expansions bring the plant's nameplate ethylene capacity to approximately 2.6 billion pounds per year. The project is the first of three plant expansion plans, as LyondellBasell is in the midst of expanding its plants in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Channelview, Texas.

View Project Report - 300040580 300138981 300096974 300126731 300141055

LyondellBasell's Corpus Christi plant expects to kick off construction this month to add an additional 800 million pounds per year of production capacity to its 1.7 billion-pound-per-year olefins unit. The company will be doing extensive work on the unit's 15 furnaces, as well as upgrades and modifications to production and supporting equipment. The expansion is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.

At the Channelview plant, LyondellBasell will be expanding its 1.7 billion-pound-per-year OP1 and 1.7 billion-pound-per-year OP2 ethylene units in two parts. Work on two new furnace additions, one for each unit, started in October 2013 and is expected to be completed in January 2015. Each furnace will add close to 200 million pounds per year of capacity.

Immediately following the furnace additions is a roughly 600 million-pound-per-year expansion between both units. Construction is set to kick off in July 2015, with completion in 2017. After all expansion work is complete, the Channelview plant's ethylene capacity will total approximately 4.4 billion pounds per year from the two production units.

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