Ingleside Ethylene Enters Start-Up, Leads Massive Jump in New U.S. Capacity for 2017

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ingleside Ethylene LLC has completed construction of its 1.2 billion pound-per-year ethylene unit in Gregory, Texas, and the new capacity is on the brink of entering the market. Commissioning activities are complete and feed is being introduced to the unit.

Ingleside Ethylene is a joint venture between Occidental Chemical, part of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) (Houston, Texas), and Mexichem (Tlalnepantla, Mexico). Ethylene produced by the new unit will be used internally to supply Occidental Chemical's existing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant, which shares the same site as the ethane cracker. Mexichem will buy a portion of the VCM produced and use it for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The plant isn't expected to have its first planned maintenance turnaround for at least five years.

The Ingleside ethylene unit is one of six new ethylene units that are anticipated to come online during 2017. The race is on between Dow Chemical Corporation (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan), Formosa Plastics Corporation USA (Livingston, New Jersey) and Exxon Mobil Corporation's (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) as to who will be the next to start up new capacity in their respective plants. If start-up of these plants remain on schedule, an additional 8.65 billion pounds per year of ethylene will become operational by the end of the summer. Furthermore, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) (Bangkok, Thailand) and Chevron Phillips LP (The Woodlands, Texas) will add another 4.15 billion pounds per year before the end of the year. All of this capacity, with the exception of the 850 million-pound-per-year Indorama plant, will be produced along the Texas Gulf Coast.

For related information, see January 4, 2017, article - The Year Ahead: Ethylene, PDH Capital Projects to Proliferate.

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