Chevron Phillips Chemical LP has broken ground on two world-scale polyethylene (PE) units—each with a 500,000 metric-ton capacity—at its site in Old Ocean, Texas.
The units represent the second and third such facilities now under construction as part of the company’s U.S. Gulf Coast Petrochemicals project, according to a June 17 company announcement.
Resin from the two units will be used for packaging, plastic piping, merchandise bags and plastic bottles, Chevron Phillips said. As part of the project, the company plans to install 45 miles of railroad track on site to “hold and transport the output of these units.”
“This entire project is made possible by advances in technology. First, through innovations within the E&P [exploration and production] industry to unlock oil and gas trapped in shale rock. Second, by the research and brilliance within Chevron Phillips Chemical to develop high-performance polyethylene resins,” Chevron Phillips president and CEO Peter L. Cella was quoted as saying.
Chevron Phillips in April began construction at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas, as part of the company’s petrochemicals project, which includes a 1.5 million-metric-ton-per-year (mt/year) ethane cracker and two 500,000 mt/year PE units in Old Ocean, Texas, according to a company announcement. The project is expected to be completed in 2017.
In Old Ocean, Gulf Coast Partners, a Technip USA Inc. and Zachry Industrial partnership, will complete engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of these units, according to the announcement. JGC (USA) Inc. and Fluor Enterprises Inc. are executing the EPC phase of the 1.5 mt/year ethane cracker.
More than 400 long-term direct jobs and 10,000 engineering, construction and fabrication jobs will be created as a result of the overall U.S. Gulf Coast Petrochemicals project, the statement further noted.
“With this groundbreaking, Chevron Phillips Chemical maintains its first mover position within the petrochemicals industry to engineer and build world-scale ethylene and derivatives facilities in the U.S. based upon the successful development of shale resources,” the company said.
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