Posted on 12/21/2015 4:52:43 AM PST by thackney
The Dow Chemical Company said Friday it started commercial operations at its new propylene production facility in Freeport as Dow reiterates its commitment to the Texas Gulf Coast following news of its planned merger with DuPont.
The massive propane dehydrogenation unit that makes propylene -- a core chemical building block of many plastics -- is located at Dow's Oyster Creek site in Freeport as part of Dow's $4 billion expansion in the area south of Houston. The plant can produce 750 kilotons of propylene a year. The growth is fueled by cheap natural gas from U.S. shale that serves as the feedstock in chemical plants.
"This milestone solidifies our first-mover advantage by bringing our investments in the U.S. Gulf Coast to fruition," said Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris in the announcement."
"Our Gulf Coast investments will serve as a solid base for long-term growth while further bolstering our market competitiveness and improving our structural feedstock hedge," added James Fitterling, vice chairman and chief operating officer.
The reassurance comes amid the huge Dow-DuPont merger announcement last week and mixed signals about Dow's growth in the region -- building new facilities, but also selling a chunk of its chlorine operations in Freeport to Olin Corp. in a $5 billion deal. About 4,200 employees work at the sprawling Dow complex in Freeport. Dow also is building the Texas Innovation Center, a five-building technology development facility in nearby Lake Jackson.
Employees fear the Dow-DuPont merger will lead to layoffs, but analysts predict most job cuts will occur outside of Texas.
The two petrochemical and agriculture giants, among the nation's oldest and most familiar companies, plan to combine next year into a chemical powerhouse called DowDuPont that would be the largest in the industry's history. In 2018, they expect to break DowDuPont into three separate, publicly traded agriculture, material science and specialty products companies. Most of the Texas operations would be housed within the material science business overseeing chemicals and plastics.
When the all-stock deal was announced, Dow Chemical had a market capitalization of nearly $64 billion and DuPont was valued at $65 billion for a combined market value of nearly $130 billion.
Dow also is planning to build another plant in Freeport to produce monoethylene glycol, which is another building block of many plastics. But the project, which would be completed in 2019, will be carried out by MEGlobal partnership, one of two partnerships Dow owns with Kuwait.
Construction was finished back in July.
Dow finishes construction on propylene production facility
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Dow-finishes-construction-on-propylene-production-6402808.php
July 23, 201
Off topic to your thread but a question.
Will that SASOL facility over in Westlake, La provide any impact upon the east Texas
petrol chemical industry.
Keep in mind that they put off some of it.
Scrapped: Oil Prices Shelve an $11 Billion Gulf Coast Project
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sasol-reviews-investment-plans-for-louisiana-gas-to-liquids-plant-1422446980
Jan. 28, 2015
South African energy giant Sasol Ltd. said Wednesday it was shelving an $11 billion project on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, imperiling one of the largest foreign investments on U.S. soil because of the plunge in oil prices.
Sasol has spent years planning to expand its chemical factory outside Lake Charles, La., into a sprawling facility to turn natural gas into industrial compounds and diesel fuel. In October, the company committed $8 billion for equipment that produces ethylene, which is used to make plastics and other products.
That plant is still going forward, but Sasol said on Wednesday that a bigger project, to use natural gas rather than crude to make diesel, is on hold.
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Sasol breaks ground on $8 billion phase of petrochemical complex near Lake Charles
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2015/03/sasol_ethane_cracker_lake_char.html
March 27, 2015
The initial phase includes a new ethane cracker and six chemical manufacturing plants to be built near Sasol’s existing facilities in Westlake.
The ethane cracker complex will cost $8.1 billion. Sasol is spending an additional $800 million on land acquisition and infrastructure and utility improvements at the site.
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It is going to raise some demand for the Natural Gas Liquids used as feedstock. Since those prices have dropped similar to oil, there is plenty of room for increase demand.
There is a huge growth in petrochemnical going on now. It will have some wavering as different phase come on line. Tough to be be completely smooth as each step of the processing won’t start exactly the same time.
We are seeing a lot of petrochem manufacturing dollars being invested in the US since the shale oil/gas production started taking off.
Yes I knew of the delay from the orginal intent. Where the facility is located
is going to change the landscape of that area. Take care.
And as you undoubtedly know, Exxon is expanding its refinery to the tue of $6+ billion in Baytown, TX, and Shell is working on $4+ billio expansion 14 miles east of Exxon in Mt. Belvieu, TX.
There are no refineries in Mont Belvieu.
The ExxonMobil Baytown expansion is of their petrochemical facilities, an ethane cracker.
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