APLA ’08: Idesa, Mexichem, Alpek study project

16 November 2008 20:44  [Source: ICIS news]

RIO DE JANEIRO (ICIS news)--Mexican petrochemicals majors Idesa, Mexichem and Alpek plan to build a joint venture (JV) ethylene and derivatives complex using ethane gas from state-owned oil company Pemex, company executives said on Sunday.

A consortium of the three companies was preparing to submit a bid to Pemex’s gas division for a long-term raw material supply contract, Idesa chief executive Jose Luis Uriegas said on the sidelines of the Latin American Petrochemical Association (APLA) annual meeting.

Located in Coatzacoalcos in Mexico’s Veracruz state, the project would have a minimum ethylene capacity of 1m tonnes/year and take four to five years to implement, said Ricardo Gutierrez, chief executive of Mexichem.

Downstream production would include polyethylene (PE) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer Mexichem would be interested in the VCM output, while Idesa and Alpek would be interested in the PE output.

The investment cost of the ethylene and PE plants is estimated at $2.0bn (€1.6bn), according to Uriegas.

The Idesa/Mexichem/Alpek consortium is one of several parties that have expressed an interest in the ethane supply contract, said Luis Rafael Montanaro Sanchez, strategic planning and business development manager at Pemex’s petrochemicals arm, Pemex Petroquimica.

He declined to identify the other, international, companies interested in building a petrochemicals complex based on the Pemex gas.

Pemex has labelled the petrochemicals project “Ethylene XXI”, Montanaro Sanchez said.

($1 = €.79)

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By: Anna Jagger
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