BASF Fina Venture Plans to Increase Ethylene Capacity of Texas Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). BASF Fina Petrochemicals LP (Port Arthur, Texas), a joint venture of BASF AG and Total SA, is planning to increase the production capacity of its 1.8 billion pound per year ethylene unit located in Port Arthur. The plant is still very new, having started up in the first quarter of 2002, and this increase in capacity will be implemented as the result of multiple process debottlenecks and retrofits in the hot end of the plant, the utilities area, and possibly the distillation area, as well.

Englobal Corporation (Beaumont, Texas) has been selected to assist with process engineering that will determine exactly what process changes are to be made. Initial plans include the installation of a new heater, potentially, a new boiler, and supporting utility upgrades.

This new plant was brought online during a time when the ethylene market was going through some major changes, including several plant and unit closures due to cost of environmental compliance, combined with the overall poor performance of the olefins market including polypropylene, polyethylene, and other plastics. Improvements in all of these areas over the last year, especially polypropylene, have prompted BASF Fina to begin pursuing this capacity increase.

Approval for the estimated $10-15 million project is expected soon, with construction bid documents being released during the first quarter of 2005 and construction beginning immediately thereafter.

This plant has not had a major maintenance turnaround since it began commercial operations, and no plans are currently in place for a turnaround any time soon. The only significant downtime Industrialinfo.com has recorded since the plant came online was an unplanned 13-day turnaround in August of 2003, due to equipment vibration problems.

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