Chevron Phillips Commissions Polyethylene Units, More on the Way in Texas, Louisiana

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (The Woodlands, Texas) has completed commissioning and begun startup of two new polyethylene units in Old Ocean, Texas, according to the company. Chevron Phillips Chemical is jointly owned by Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) and Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) (Houston, Texas). Industrial Info is tracking $835 million in planned polyethylene-related project completions in the fourth quarter in Texas and Louisiana.

The two units will each produce about 1.1 billion pounds per of polyethylene. Construction on the units began in early 2014. Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Dallas, Texas) performed design-engineering work, and Zachry Industrial Incorporated (San Antonio, Texas) was general contractor. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Chief Executive Officer Mark Lashier said: "In 2011, Chevron Phillips Chemical was the first to announce a leading-edge $6 billion petrochemicals project to take advantage of the newfound shale gas resources in the United States, and I am thrilled we are completing the first phase of this project."

Other companies also are moving to take advantage of abundant shale gas resources by constructing ethylene and polyethylene units. DowDuPont Incorporated (NYSE:DWDP) (Midland, Michigan) began construction on a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit in 2014 at its facility in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The unit will have a production capacity of 500 million to 550 million pounds per year. The facility is in final commissioning and is planned to start up next month. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Construction of Chevron Phillips' polyethylene units is part of the company's $6 billion Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project, which also includes an ethylene cracker in Baytown, Texas. Construction began in the second quarter of 2014, but was delayed slightly due to flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. The facility remains on track to begin commissioning in the first quarter of next year and begin full production in the second quarter. The unit will have a production capacity of 3.3 billion pounds per year. Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas) is performing engineering, procurement and construction on the project. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

ExxonMobil Chemical Company, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), appears to be following a similar path as it continues commissioning two polyethylene units at its site in Mont Belvieu, Texas. One unit will produce linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and the other will produce high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with a combined production capacity of 2.86 billion pounds per year. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Incorporated (Tokyo, Japan) is performing engineering, procurement and construction on the project, which kicked off in 2014 and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter this year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report. The project will use feedstock from ExxonMobil's new ethylene unit in Baytown, Texas, which is scheduled for completion this month. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Other polyethylene projects began a bit later, and are under construction for startup in the not-too-distant future. One of these is DowDuPont's LDPE unit in Freeport, Texas. Upon completion, the project will produce 650,000 metric tons per year of LDPE. Construction began in the first half of 2015 and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) (Houston, Texas) began construction on a polyethylene unit in La Porte, Texas, earlier this year. The unit will have a production capacity of 1.1 billion pounds per year, when it is completed late 2019. A control room addition for the unit is planned to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the polyethylene unit and control room, as well as June 6, 2017, article - LyondellBasell Concentrates on Growing PE Exports.

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