Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC (CPCC)—a joint venture of Chevron Corp. and Phillips 66—and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have signed an agreement to jointly pursue development of a new petrochemical plant at the US Gulf Coast.
To be known as the USGC II, the complex will include a 2 million-tonne/year ethylene cracker and two 1 million-tpy high-density polyethylene (HDPE) units, CPCC said.
As part of the July 9 agreement, CPCC would own 51% interest in the project, with QP holding the remaining 49% interest.
Alongside providing project management and oversight, CPCC also would be responsible for operation and management of the complex, which the companies estimate will cost about $8 billion.
CPCC and QP said they expect to take a final investment decision on the project no later than 2021, followed by full funding and award of engineering, procurement, and construction contracts, for a targeted start-up of the new complex in 2024.
While the companies did not disclose a specific site for the proposed complex, they reiterated the project’s USGC location would offer direct access to abundant shale NGL reserves of the Permian basin.
“We are very pleased to sign this agreement, which is the second of its kind in as many weeks, with our trusted partner, [CPCC], to further cement the strong partnership between our two companies and to complement [QP’s] international portfolio in the [US], which is a core growth area for us as we believe it has great prospects and growth opportunities,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs as well as QP’s president and chief executive officer.
This latest proposed joint venture follows CPCC and QP’s signing of a June agreement to develop, build, and operate a petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, that will produce ethylene and HDPE (OGJ Online, June 24, 2019).
The Ras Laffan project—of which QP will own a 70% majority share and CPCC holding the remaining 30%—would include a 1.9 million-tpy ethane cracker as well as two HDPE derivative units with a combined capacity of 1.68 million tpy for targeted start-up in late 2025.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.