Chevron lets automation contract for Texas petchem project

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC has selected Yokogawa Electric Corp. as the main automation contractor for its petrochemical complex along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The project was first announced in March 2011 (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2011) and will include a 3.3 billion lb/year ethane cracker and two new polyethylene facilities, each with an annual capacity of 1.1 billion lb/year (OGJ Online, May 2, 2012).

The ethane cracker will be built at Chevron Phillips’s Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex. (OGJ Online, May 1, 2012), and two polyethylene units will be built at a site in Old Ocean, Tex., near the company’s Sweeny plant (OGJ Online, May 2, 2012).

As the main automation contractor for the project, Yokogawa will supply the control systems, safety systems, remote instrument enclosures, and the analyzer shelters and analytical systems, the company said.

The control system platform will be based on Yokogawa's CENTUM VP integrated production control system.

Construction on the project is slated to begin in early 2014, according to Yokogawa.