NPRA ’09: Cracker shutdown “painful decision” - LyondellBasell

30 March 2009 21:02  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--LyondellBasell took a “very painful decision” to permanently shut down its Chocolate Bayou cracker in Texas, but the decision was made because the plant was its least flexible unit, an executive said on Monday.

The 544,000 tonne/year cracker has been off line since December 2008 and will be shut down by 4 August, according to the company.

LyondellBasell has also attributed its decision to shut down Chocolate Bayou to reduced olefins demand in the US.

The company expects ethylene and propylene consumption to drop by 3-5% in 2009, according to vice president for olefins and aromatics, J Vaughn Deasy.

Deasy said LyondellBasell has “invested heavily” to make some of its other units more flexible, but did not rule out more shutdowns in the future.

“We do not know. It is an evolving situation,” he said on the sidelines of the 2009 International Petrochemical Conference, sponsored by the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA).

The company has six other US crackers with a combined ethylene capacity of 4.3m tonnes/year.

LyondellBasell's US operations on 6 January filed for bankruptcy protection.

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By: William Lemos
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