Top U.S. Petrochemical Players Prep for First-Quarter Maintenance

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. petrochemical market is seeing demand for its products grow across multiple industries, with more calls coming from overseas. Many producers are rushing to keep their facilities in the best shape for seemingly endless activity. Industrial Info is tracking more than 60 maintenance-related projects at petrochemical-processing facilities across the U.S. that are set to begin in the first quarter of 2024, with more than 95% of the investment attached to projects in Texas and Louisiana.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing the top 10 companies for U.S. maintenance-related petrochemical project investment set to kick off from January through February, by total investment value.

The Texas Gulf Coast accounts for all maintenance-related projects from the three biggest spenders on turnarounds: LyondellBasell (NYSE:LYB) (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) (Houston, Texas) and INEOS Limited (London, England). The area surrounding Houston and Galveston accounts for all of these turnarounds, except for one in Corpus Christi.

LyondellBasell, which accounts for the highest total investment in first-quarter maintenance of any petrochemical company, agreed earlier this month to sell its Ethylene Oxide & Derivatives business to third-highest spender INEOS for $700 million. The deal is expected to close in second-quarter 2024. For more information, see December 11, 2023, article - LyondellBasell to Sell Ethylene Oxide & Derivatives Business to INEOS.

Among the assets to be acquired by INEOS are the 838 million-pound-per-year ethylene oxide plant, the 585 million-pound-per-year ethylene glycol plant at the Bayport Underwood site in Pasadena, Texas, along with other units and all associated third-party business on the site. Both of these units are set to undergo 30-day turnarounds from February to early March. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing Project Database can read more details, including investment values, in reports on the ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol projects.

Both LyondellBasell and INEOS are preparing for turnarounds on their own ethylene units in the coming quarter. LyondellBasell's 2.5 billion-pound-per-year unit at its olefins complex in Corpus Christi, Texas, is expected to undergo maintenance from February through April, while INEOS' 1.7 billion-pound-per-year unit at its Chocolate Bayou olefins complex in Alvin, Texas, is expected to undergo maintenance from March through May. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Corpus Christi and Alvin projects.

Other planned turnarounds from INEOS include its 770,000-metric-ton-per-year styrene monomer plant in Pasadena, about three miles west of the Bayport Underwood site it soon will acquire. "There is free land on the Bayport Underwood site for INEOS' growth aspirations, and it is an ideal location to develop our third-party business, supporting customers to co-locate and integrate into an existing Ethylene Oxide & Derivatives platform," said Tobias Hannemann, the chief executive officer on INEOS, in a press release. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.

Although it trails LyondellBasell in overall spending on first-quarter maintenance, Enterprise's single turnaround is among the highest-valued: a propane dehydrogenation unit at its NGL fractionator complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas, which produces 1.65 billion pounds per year of propylene. The 55-day turnaround is expected to begin in March and run through April. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.

Although Texas accounts for nearly twice as much maintenance-related spending as Louisiana, the Pelican State is home to several of the top-valued first-quarter turnarounds, including two at TotalEnergies SE's (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France) Cos-Mar Styrene Plant in Carville: the Styrene A and Styrene B units, each of which produces 1.3 billion pounds per year; Styrene B is coupled with a turnaround on the 2.6 million-metric-ton-per-year Ethylbenzene 3 Unit. The projects are set to kick off in January and February, respectively, and each will last about a month. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Styrene A and Styrene B/Ethylbenzene projects.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Subscribers can click here for a full list of reports for maintenance-related projects at petrochemical-processing facilities across the U.S. that are set to begin in the first quarter of 2024.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).