Chevron Phillips Chemical commissions Texas PE units, delays cracker startup

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has commissioned two 500,000-tonne/year polyethylene (PE) units at Old Ocean, Tex., completing the first phase of its $6-billion US Gulf Coast (USGC) petrochemical project (OGJ Online, Mar. 29. 2011).

Based on CPCC’s proprietary MarTech process technology, the two PE units became operational as of Sept. 19, the company said.

Supplied with ethylene feedstock via CPCC’s ethylene pipeline and storage system expanded as part of the project, the two units—which reached mechanical completion in June—will produce a combined 1 million tpy of Marlex PE resin for delivery to customers in North America as well as to strategic transloading facilities across the US for export to destinations around the world (OGJ Online, June 20, 2017).

While startup of the Old Ocean PE units completes the first phase of the USGC petrochemical project, CPCC said the project’s second phase—a 1.5 million-tpy ethane cracker currently under construction at the company’s Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex.—will be delayed amid recent flooding at the site caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Initially planned for startup by yearend, CPCC said it now expects to complete construction and begin commissioning the Baytown ethane cracker in first-quarter 2018 to reach full production rates sometime during second-quarter 2018 (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2014).

First announced in March 2011, CPCC’s USGC petrochemical project comes as part of the operator’s strategy to help meet robust global demand for ethylene and ethylene derivatives by taking advantage of abundant shale gas feedstock produced from ongoing development of US shale resources.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].