BP earmarks £500m for UK investment

01 December 1998 00:00  [Source: PCE]

BP Chemicals is to invest £500m ($831m) in new plants at its Grangemouth, Scotland, and Hull, UK, sites. A new 110 000 tonne/year ethanol plant is to be built at Grangemouth and a 250 000 tonne/year vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant and a 220 000 tonne/year ethyl acetate plant at Hull.

The VAM plant is scheduled for completion by the end of 2000 and the ethyl acetate plant by 2001. BP will use its new proprietary VAM technology, which it claims can more than double the capacity of a single reactor compared with conventional technology. BP will close its 115 000 tonne/year VAM plant at Baglan Bay, south Wales, when the company is in a position to assure uninterrupted supply to customers.

The new plant will replace output at Hull from BP's current ethyl acetate process, which relies on the esterification of ethanol with acetic acid.

Bryan Sanderson, BP Chemicals chief executive, said the investments will increase mid-cycle earnings by £85m/year, mainly from reduced production and logistics costs.

'It will demonstrate that northeast UK is one of the most attractive chemicals manufacturing locations in Europe and, indeed, the world.'

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