Total venture plans US cracker

THE US petrochemicals boom rolls on with Total announcing plans to build a new ethane cracker and polyethylene plant in Texas, fed by cheap shale gas.

The plants will be built in a new joint venture between Total, Borealis and Nova. A US$1.7bn EPC contract has been awarded to CB&I for a new ethane cracker capable of producing 1m t/y of ethylene. It will be built alongside Total’s Port Arthur refinery and the existing steam cracker it runs with BASF. Operations are set to begin in 2020.

Total said in a statement that synergies from its integrated operations in Texas will help it deliver one of the most competitive cracker projects in the US.

A final investment decision on whether to build a new 625,000 t/y polyethylene plant in Bayport – alongside its existing 400,000 t/y facility – is expected to be taken later this year.

The abundance of cheap shale gas produced in the US is fuelling a petrochemicals renaissance providing producers with both competitive fuel and feedstock.

Commenting on CB&I’s contract win, company CEO Philip Asherman said: 'The cracker project, the fourth new ethane project for CB&I on the US Gulf Coast, will allow Total to capitalise on the abundance of shale gas in the US and realise significant operational synergies, and we look forward to helping them build on their global ethylene capabilities.”

Total and its partners join a long list of firms constructing new ethane crackers in the US. The first in a wave of new Gulf Coast plants set to start up this year, with Chevron Phillips Chemical, Dow Chemical and a venture between Occidental Petroleum and MexiChem all set to begin operations in 2017.