Cos-Mar Completes Major Upgrade of Styrene Monomer Unit in Southwest U.S.

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Cos-Mar Company (Carville, Louisiana), a joint venture of Atofina Petrochemicals Incorporated and GE Petrochemicals Incorporated recently completed a major upgrade and expansion of their styrene monomer unit B located at their Carville site (Plant 1004072; PEC 02005029). When Industrialinfo.com originally reported this project in December of 2002 as part of the North American Project Database , CDI Engineering (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) was providing engineering for this estimated $100 million project.

Unit B just completed a major maintenance turnaround (PEC 02005157) in the first quarter where the upgrade was officially completed and tie-ins were made. Plans dating back as far as 1998 for a third production unit to produce styrene at the site are on hold as last reported in May of 2002 (PEC 02003880). Until downstream markets such as polystyrene improve substantially capital dollars will be targeted at small improvement projects such as a planned boiler replacement next year (PEC 02005264).