Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPCC) has reached mechanical completion of two 500,000-tonne/year (tpy) polyethylene (PE) plants in Old Ocean, Tex. (OGJ Online, June 18, 2014; Mar. 29, 2011).
The new PE units are now undergoing a series of rigorous commissioning activities, system checks, and final certifications to ensure a safe, reliable startup and consistent, high-quality production scheduled to begin during third-quarter 2017, CPCC said.
Ethylene feedstock for the PE units will be supplied via CPCC’s ethylene pipeline and storage system that was also expanded as part of this project, which also included construction of a rail facility with the capacity to store 1,500 rail cars to ship PE pellets to customers around the world as well as the addition of nearly 3,000 rail cars, according to the operator.
The new PE units will enable CPCC to take advantage of abundant NGL feedstocks produced from ongoing development of US shale resources to help meet growing PE demand from global customers producing performance films, high-pressure pipe, and packaging, according to Peter Cella, CPCC’s president and chief executive officer.
The Old Ocean PE units come as part of CPCC’s $6 billion US Gulf Coast petrochemicals project, the final element of which entails construction of a new ethane cracker due to be completed in fourth-quarter 2017 at the company’s existing Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex. (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2014).
CPCC plans to complete the entire US Gulf Coast petrochemicals project by yearend, said Steve Prusak, commercial director for the project.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
