Basell Will Build Plant In Trinidad

Basell has signed a memorandum of understanding to build a polypropylene complex in Trinidad & Tobago with the country's National Gas Co. and National Energy Corp. The 450,000-ton-per-year plant would start up by 2012. Instead of originating from an ethylene cracker or refinery, feedstock propylene would be made in a methanol-to-propylene plant that would be constructed by the German engineering firm Lurgi. Largely untested, methanol-to-olefin routes are regarded as a way to turn methane or synthesis gas into petrochemicals. The Trinidad government is also developing an ethane-based ethylene complex with the U.S. firm Westlake Chemical.