Chevron Phillips to build two new Polyethylene units
In April, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. (Chevron Phillips) confirmed to build two polyethylene facilities in Sweeny facility in Old Ocean, Texas, which is located in Brazoria County.
The two polyethylene facilities planned are part of the company’s U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project.
The Woodlands-based chemical company, Chevron Phillips is a joint venture between California-based Chevron Corp. and Houston-based ConocoPhillips.
As the other petrochemical companies Chevron Phillips is willing to take advantage of cheap natural gas prices due to shale gas exploration and production.
U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project
These new facilities are part of Chevron Phillips U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project that would request a total of $5 billion capital expenditure.
This Chevron Phillips U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project would include:
– A new “world-scale” ethane cracker in its existing Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas, USA., to produce 1.5 million t/y ethylene.
– Two new facilities will each have an annual capacity of 500,000 t/y Polyethylene located in Sweeny, where Chevron Phillips currently has chemical processing facilities but not polyethylene yet.
With this significant addition of olefin capacity, Chevron Phillips plans to use this ethylene production as feedstock for the downstream development of polyolefins as part of its U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project
Jacobs and Shaw share the FEED
Shaw Energy & Chemicals (ex Stone & Webster on the way of Technip acquisition) had got the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract to design the ethane cracker
Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. has executed the FEED agreement to design the polyethylene facilities..
These polyethylene facilities would utilize Chevron Phillips’s proprietary Loop Slurry Technology.
In addition, constructing polyethylene infrastructure at Old Ocean better positions the location for potential future capital expenditure.
Chevron Phillips is expected to create about 400 long-term jobs and 10,000 engineering and construction jobs.
With Jacobs and Shaw FEEDs well in progress, Chevron Phillips estimates completion date for the USGC Petrochemicals Project is 2017.
