Texas Chemicals Plant One Step Closer with Tax Breaks

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A joint venture chemicals plant of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (ExxonMobil) (Irving, Texas) and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) in Texas may be a step closer to becoming reality with more than $530 million in tax breaks from the local school district.

Construction on the $10 billion petrochemical complex near Portland, Texas, located north of Corpus Christi, is proposed to start later this year, taking about three years to complete. The Texas Comptroller confirmed last week that the project is set to receive more than $531 million in tax breaks from the Gregory-Portland school district in addition to $200 million in tax breaks from San Patricio County, where the facility will be located.

The grassroot facility will include an ethylene plant, a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit. The location of the project was announced last year and remains controversial among Portland residents, many of whom worry about the disruption the new facility could cause.

The ethylene unit will produce an estimated 3.96 billion pounds per year and will take the longest time of the units to construct. The MEG unit will produce an estimated 2.42 billion pounds per year; the LLDPE unit will produce an estimated 1.43 billion pounds per year; and the HDPE unit will produce an estimated 1.32 billion pounds per year. Amec Foster Wheeler plc (NYSE:AMFW) (London, England) is performing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the infrastructure portion of the project; the owners have not yet selected EPC companies for other portions. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the ethylene unit, MEG unit, LLDPE unit and HDPE unit.

As inexpensive shale gas continues making its way into the U.S. market, units to produce ethylene and its derivatives continue to be big business in the U.S. ExxonMobil is in the process of wrapping up construction of an ethylene unit at its facility in Baytown, Texas. The unit will produce an estimated 3 billion pounds per year of ethylene. Construction began in mid-2014 and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. Linde AG (Munich, Germany) and Bechtel Group Incorporated (San Francisco, California) are providing EPC on the project. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

In Beaumont, Texas, ExxonMobil is underway on a low-density polyethylene unit near its existing facility. The unit will produce 1.43 billion pounds per year of polyethylene. Construction began in late 2016 and is expected to be completed in early 2019. Zachry Corporation (San Antonio, Texas) and Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Dallas, Texas) are providing EPC work on the project. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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