OMG-TotalEnergies JV commissions Texas ethylene plant

Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar)—a 50-50 joint venture of OMV AG subsidiary Borealis AG and TotalEnergies SE—has commissioned its 1-million tonne/year (tpy) ethane steam cracker at TotalEnergies Petrochemical & Refining USA’s 200,000-b/d integrated refining complex in Port Arthur, Tex. (OGJ Online, Mar. 17, 2017).

Baystar officially began commercial operations of the new Port Arthur ethane cracker on July 21, TotalEnergies and OMV said in separate releases.

To be operated by TotalEnergies, the nearly $2-billion cracker project will supply ethylene feedstock to Baystar’s existing 400,000-tpy polyethylene (PE) production site in Bayport, Tex.

Ethylene produced by the new cracker also will provide feedstock to a 625,000-tpy PE unit currently under construction at the Bayport site, the partners said.

To be equipped with Borealis’ proprietary Borstar PE process technology, the Bayport Borstar PE unit—once operable—will more than double the site’s PE production capacity to 1.1 million tpy (OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2018).

Designed to help meet growing global demand for PE by taking advantage of abundant, competitively priced US ethane feedstock supplies and easy export access to markets abroad, the newly commissioned Port Arthur cracker and forthcoming Bayport Borstar PE unit come as part of the partners’ strategies to help further integrate and expand their respective businesses in the US, the companies said.

A definitive timeframe for startup of Bayport’s Borstar PE unit has yet to be revealed.