U.S. Firms Detail Investments

Chevron Phillips Chemical and LyondellBasell Industries are honing plans for new investments in the U.S. spurred by feedstocks extracted from natural gas shale. Chevron Phillips says it has completed several key elements of a study on an ethylene cracker and derivatives complex on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company has contracted with Shaw Energy & Chemicals to design a 3.3 billion-lb-per-year cracker in Cedar Bayou, Texas. In March, Chevron Phillips estimated the size of the unit at 2.5 billion lb and hadn’t selected a site. In addition, the company will build two 1.1 billion-lb polyethylene plants, based on in-house technology, in either Cedar Bayou or Sweeny, Texas. It expects to complete the plants by 2017 at a cost of about $5 billion. At an investor day, LyondellBasell unveiled a rash of new investments for the U.S. and beyond. The company will expand ethylene capacity in La Porte, Texas, by 850 million lb. It will restart a 1.7 billion-lb methanol plant in Channelview, Texas, and it will construct a propylene-producing metathesis unit in Channelview. Additionally, Lyondell and Sinopec are studying a propylene oxide/tert-butyl alcohol plant in Ningbo, China.