Dow to Begin Construction Next Month for New Ethylene Furnace at Oyster Creek

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) (Midland, Michigan) will begin construction in November for the addition of a new ethylene furnace at its Oyster Creek plant located in Freeport, Texas. The new unit will be installed in an operating unit named LHC8 (light hydrocarbons) and employ SCORE (Selective Catalytic Optimum Recovery) technology licensed from KBR.

Halliburton KBR (NYSE: HAL) (Houston, Texas) has been hired to provide design and construction services for the new furnace. Industrialinfo.com first reported this project as part of its North American Industrial Database in April of this year.

Dow has recently announced the construction of a new 900 million pound per year ethylene unit addition at its Seadrift, Texas site that was acquired as part of its purchase of Union Carbide. The capacity of the new unit will replace ethylene capacity that is being shuttered in 2005 at Texas City and Seadrift, Texas. "The shuttering of these older plants is a direct result of the cost associated with upgrades necessary to meet new NOx emission levels being mandated by the EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)," commented Trey Hamblet, Chemical Group Manager with Industrialinfo.com.

"The number of ethylene capacity expansion projects currently planned over the next several years doesn't seem to be well matched with anticipated demand looking out several years," Mr. Hamblet added. The closure of a large amount of ethylene, polypropylene, and chlorine during 2002 has positioned producers to enjoy a recent gain in pricing and the potential to bring a small amount of new capacity back to the market within the next two years.