Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP completed an ethylene expansion at its Sweeny complex in Old Ocean, Texas, according to a statement from the company. The addition of a 10th furnace to ethylene unit 33 at the Sweeny complex is expected to increase annual production by 200 million pounds (lb).

“We’re building toward the startup of the U.S. Gulf Coast Petrochemicals project in 2017 and supporting incremental growth of our olefins derivative businesses,” said Dave Smith, olefins & natural gas liquids vice president for Chevron Phillips Chemical. The company’s U.S. Gulf Coast Petrochemicals project includes building an ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas, and two polyethylene units in Old Ocean near the Sweeny complex.

The Sweeny complex is now capable of producing about 12 million pounds of ethylene per day, or 4.3 billion lb per year.