Petrochemicals Drive U.S. Chemical Industry's Nearly 220 Maintenance Projects in First Quarter

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Top players in the U.S. Chemical Industry continue to benefit from growing international demand for petrochemical products, aided by the abundance of shale gas as feedstock, and are investing accordingly. As they consider new facilities, proper maintenance is necessary to keep older units up and running. Industrial Info is tracking more than $810 million worth of maintenance-related projects in the U.S. Chemical Industry that are set to kick off in first-quarter 2020, more than 75% of which is attributed to projects in the Southwest market region.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing maintenance-related projects in the U.S. Chemical Industry that are scheduled to begin work from January through March.

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) (The Woodlands, Texas) alone accounts for nearly 10% of the total spending with its turnaround on the F-5 Area PO/MTBE Unit at its oxides and olefins facility in Port Neches, Texas. Maintenance on the unit, which produces 240,000 metric tons per year of propylene oxide (PO) and 650,000 metric tons per year of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), is scheduled to begin in February and run through mid-April. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

The PO/MTBE unit, however, was negatively affected by a blast at a butadiene unit on November 27 at a neighboring complex owned by TPC Group. Huntsman said its own PO/MTBE unit was not damaged, but noted it stores MTBE at the TPC site, where some of the piping that supplied feedstock chemicals to its PO/MTBE unit was damaged. Following a halt in operations at the PO/MTBE unit last week, Huntsman has resumed operations at all units except for one PO/MTBE processor, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Other chemical heavy hitters preparing for turnarounds in Texas include Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (The Woodlands, Texas), which is jointly owned by Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) and Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) (Houston, Texas). Chevron Phillips is preparing for routine inspections and repairs to its 620 million-pound-per-year low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit at its Cedar Bayou Plant in Baytown, which includes six production lines. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

LyondellBasell Industries NV's (NYSE:LYB) (Houston) OP1 Unit at its facility in Channelview, Texas, which produces 1.7 billion pounds per year of ethylene, is scheduled to see a turnaround from March through mid-April. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany), which accounts for a higher number of maintenance projects next quarter than any other company, is spearheading one of the largest turnarounds in Louisiana, which is second only to Texas in first-quarter maintenance-related spending. Clusters 1, 5, 7 and 9 at the chemical production plant in Geismar are set to undergo regular inspections and repairs from January through early February. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Similarly, Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK) (Houston), one of the top producers in the region, is preparing for a turnaround on its Petro 2 Unit at a chemicals complex in Sulphur, Louisiana. The 1.6 billion-pound-per-year ethylene production unit is expected to see a longer turnaround than those previously mentioned, lasting from February through late May. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Outside the Gulf Coast, a smaller number of maintenance-related chemical projects are scattered across the country. LyondellBasell expects to begin a spring season turnaround at the polymers area of an ethylene and plastic pellets plant in Clinton, Iowa, which includes four polymerization reactors that produce about 487 million pounds per year of LDPE and 450 million pounds per year of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), while Framatome Incorporated, a subsidiary of Orano Group (Paris, France), is prepping for regular work on its uranium fuels plant in Richland, Washington. For more information, see Industrial Info's reports on the Lyondellbasell and Framatome projects.

Among the longer-term projects set to begin construction is DAK Americas LLC's (Charlotte, North Carolina) 2020 turnaround program at its isobutylene polymers plant in Gaston, South Carolina. The facility, which produces about 700,000 metric tons per year of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) solid-state resins, 770,000 metric tons per year of PET melt-phase polymer and 600,000 metric tons per year of terephthalic acid (TPA), is expected to kick off the program in February and wrap it up in November. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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