Vast Array of U.S. Petchem Projects Proposed for Kickoff in Second-Half 2018

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--"When one door closes another door opens," is a partial quote attributed to inventor Alexander Graham Bell, and it could well apply these days to the U.S. petrochemicals industry, where a wave of new opportunities abound. Last week, Industrial Info wrote about nearly $11 billion in U.S. petrochemical projects that are expected to see completion in the second half of this year. For more information, see May 24, 2018, article - U.S. Petchem Industry to See $11 Billion in Project Completions in Second-Half 2018.

For the same period, proposed construction kickoffs amount to nearly $22 billion in project value. Not all of them, however, will ultimately adhere to this time frame, and Industrial Info assesses the likelihood of each project moving forward as planned.

Click on the image at right for a graph showing proposed U.S. second-half 2018 petrochemical project kickoffs by market region.

A very big chunk of the total value of the petrochemicals-related projects that are currently planned to start construction in the second half of 2018 is tied to the Gulf Coast petrochemical complex in San Patricio County, Texas, a joint venture by Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (ExxonMobil) (Irving, Texas) and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). The Portland, Texas, complex will include a 1.8 million-metric-ton-per-year ethane cracker, a monoethylene glycol unit and two polyethylene units. A joint venture between Chiyoda International Corporation (part of the Chiyoda Group) (Yokohama, Japan) and Kiewit Corporation (Omaha, Nebraska) is handling the general engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) chores on the ethane cracker project, which would be completed in 2021.

For more information on the Portland, Texas, complex, see Industrial Info's project reports on the ethylene plant, the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit addition and the linear low-density polyethylene unit addition. For related information, see January 9, 2018, article - Texas Chemicals Plant One Step Closer with Tax Breaks.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, construction could begin this year on Wanhua Industry Group Company Limited's (Yantai, China) methylene diphenylene diisocyanate (MDI) plant in St. James Parish. According to The Times-Picayune, the company's decision to locate the facility in the state came after three years of negotiations with Governor John Bel Edwards. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

In the northeast U.S., a number of project kickoffs this year are tied to Royal Dutch Shell plc's (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, Netherlands) Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex. Located in Monaca, Pennsylvania, the complex will use ethane from shale-gas producers in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays to produce as much as 1.6 million metric tons of polyethylene per year when it becomes operational early next decade. It will be the first petrochemical plant built outside of the Gulf of Mexico coastal regions of Texas and Louisiana in decades. Construction on the complex's ethylene plant began in 2017.

Construction is expected to start in the second half of this year on four unit additions at the Pennsylvania site. Bechtel Corporation (San Francisco, California), McCarl's Incorporated (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania), Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Incorporated (NYSE:BW) (B&W) (Charlotte, North Carolina) and Linde AG (Munich, Germany) are involved with the unit additions. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the gas-phased HDPE unit addition, the LLDPE unit addition, the slurry HDPE unit addition and the 250-megawatt (MW) cogen unit addition.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.