Geismar, Louisiana, to See $1.7 Billion in Planned Project Kickoffs, Completions in Second-Half 2018

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The community of Geismar in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, is located squarely in Louisiana's Chemical corridor, along the banks of the Mississippi River. Industrial Info is tracking more than $1.7 billion in planned project starts and completions in the area in the second half of this year, mostly within the Chemical Processing Industry.

Among the projects planned to kick off by the end of the year is Westlake Chemical Corporation's (NYSE:WLK) (Houston, Texas) expansion of its vinyls complex. The expansion will increase production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by 270 million pounds per year and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) by an additional 150 million pounds. The project also includes expansion of the complex's VCM railcar unloading system from 500 to 1,500 cars per year. The project is expected to take about a year to complete. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the complex expansion and railcar unloading system expansion.

Also on the books to kick off is Air Products and Chemicals Incorporated's (NYSE:APD) (Allentown, Pennsylvania) grassroot hydrogen plant. The facility will produce approximately 50 million standard feet per day of hydrogen and approximately 370 tons per day of carbon monoxide. Construction is set to kick off in the fourth quarter and be completed in early 2020. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Occidental Chemicals Corporation, a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) (Houston), plans this summer to begin capital upgrades of the Chlorine area of its Geismar complex. The project includes several small capital upgrades such as piping replacements and automation upgrades that will be completed during a maintenance turnaround of the facility. For more information see Industrial Info's project reports on the capital upgrades and turnaround.

Some even larger projects are planned for completion before the year's end. Among these is Royal Dutch Shell plc's (NYSE:RDS-A) (The Hague, Netherlands) alpha-olefins unit addition. The unit will have an estimated production capacity of 930 million pounds per year of alpha-olefins and will be the fourth such unit at the site. Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Dallas, Texas) is performing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the project, construction of which began in early 2016. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Nutrien Limited (NYSE:NTR) (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), the company formed by the merger of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium at the start of this year, is wrapping up the addition of a urea unit at its facility in Geismar. The 730,000-ton-per-year unit will replace an older unit. H&K Engineering LLC (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is engineer. Construction began in the first quarter of 2016 and is expected to be completed this summer. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Also planned for completion is Praxair Incorporated's (NYSE:PX) (Danbury, Connecticut) expansion of a carbon monoxide unit. The project will increase production of carbon monoxide by 13 million standard cubic feet per day. KP Engineering Limited Partnership (Tyler, Texas) is providing EPC. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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