Total’s Port Arthur ethane cracker contract award detailed

CB&I, Houston, has confirmed a previously announced contract award from Total SA’s Houston-based subsidiary Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc. (TPRI) to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for a 1 million-tonne/year ethane cracker to be built at TPRI’s refining and petrochemical manufacturing site in Port Arthur, Tex. (OGJ Online, Mar. 27, 2017).

The EPC contract, valued at about $1.3 billion, follows Total’s earlier award to CB&I for front-end engineering and design services and ethylene technology licensing for the proposed Port Arthur cracker project (OGJ Online, Sept. 24, 2015), CB&I said.

Originally licensed to use seven of CB&I’s highly selective Short Residence Time (SRT) cracking heaters, the new cracker now will use six SRT-III pyrolysis heaters, the service provider said.

CB&I’s confirmation of the EPC contract follows a Mar. 27 announcement from Total, Nova Chemicals Corp., and Borealis AG that the three have entered a preliminary partnership agreement to build the grassroots steam cracker at TPRI’s Port Arthur operations, which alongside Total’s 178,000-b/d refinery, also hosts BASF Corp. (60%)-TPRI (40%) jointly owned BASF Total Petrochemicals LCC’s more than 1 million-tpy ethylene plant (OGJ Online, June 4, 2015).

As part of the proposed partnership, the three companies also would jointly build and own a 625,000-tpy polyethylene (PE) production plant based on Borealis’ proprietary Borstar PE process at Total’s petrochemical production site in Bayport, Tex.

With final investment decision on the projects due by yearend, the $1.7-billion ethane cracker and Borstar PE unit, if approved, would reach startup in late 2020, according to Total, which plans to hold 50% ownership interest in the proposed partnership.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].