Equate delays PE expansion and Olefins II to Sept

15 July 2008 12:42  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Equate Petrochemical Co has delayed its polyethylene (PE) expansion and the Olefins II project at Shuaiba, Kuwait by a month to September 2008, a source close to the company said on Tuesday.

"The delay is because the extra gas supply for the new olefins project is still not available. The debottlenecking of the gas supply has not yet been completed," the source said.

The shortage of ethylene due to the delay in Olefins II had forced the company to postpone the PE expansion, the source added.

Equate plans to increase the capacity of its existing 550,000 tonne/year high density PE (HDPE)/linear low density PE (LLDPE) swing plant by 50%.

The expansion, and the new Olefins II project, which includes an 850,000 tonne/year ethylene cracker, were earlier scheduled to come on stream in August.

However,  the new 600,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant downstream of the Olefins II cracker, was expected to start up later this month,  the company said last week.

Equate is a joint venture of Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) and Dow Chemical.

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By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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