Flint Hills Prepares for Ethylene Plant Demolition; Rextac to Restart Portions of Former Olefins Complex

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Flint Hills Resources LP (Wichita, Kansas), a subsidiary of Koch Industries Incorporated (Wichita), is moving forward with plans to dismantle and demolish a former olefins plant in Odessa, Texas. Flint Hills originally announced plans to permanently close the site in fall 2008 and ceased all operations of the plant during the second quarter of this year. The site manufactured a spectrum of olefin products, including ethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and amorphous polyalpha olefin (APAO). A shortlist of six industrial demolition contractors has been established, and the selection of a firm to completely demolish all but the former APAO area of the site is expected to occur by November.

Rextac LLC (Odessa, Texas) purchased the former APAO unit at the site. The APAO area has three production lines. Rextac is currently under way with construction plans to refurbish and restart at least one of these production lines by the end of this year to produce approximately 80 million pounds per year of product. The restart of this line has required the installation of new utilities and infrastructure to operate as an independent plant.

Reiss Environmental, a subsidiary of Koch, is managing the overall dismantlement, demolition and closure of the Odessa plant site. The dismantling of the site is a huge undertaking, involving the removal of the former 800 million-pound-per-year ethylene unit, which contains 10 furnaces, multiple resin units, and miles of supporting piping and infrastructure. Construction to begin demolishing the plant is expected to get under way in January of 2010, preparing the site for eventual sale or redevelopment.

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