NPRA ’09: Liquid crackers pressed by costs - LyondellBasell

31 March 2009 02:05  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--A LyondellBasell executive declined to predict whether the company would permanently shut down any more of it olefins plants after the closure of its Chocolate Bayou, Texas facility, but added that many US companies with more costly liquid feedstock crackers are looking a whether to keep them operating.

“Traditionally we have had predominately liquid crackers - that is not the most advantageous place to be,” said J Vaughn Deasy, senior vice president for olefins and aromatics in the Americas, on the sidelines of the International Petrochemical Conference.

The higher cost associated with liquid feedstock versus natural gas contributed to LyondellBasell’s decision to permanently close its 544,000 tonne/year Chocolate Bayou plant, Deasy said.

The feedstock situation is “allowing for what should have been typically thought of as higher cost, older and smaller plants to stay very competitive today because they’re cracking ethane, which is the most simple path to make ethylene,” Deasy said. “It is defying logic, if you will, to a degree…”

LyondellBasell has two other North American liquid feedstock-fed plants, in Channelview and Corpus Christi, Texas, he noted.

But those two plants are much larger than Chocolate Bayou and more economically viable, Deasy said.

Moreover, LyondellBasell has invested substantial amounts during the past 24 months to equip the Channelview and Corpus Christi operations with the ability to process natural gas liquids (NGLs), which give them more feedstock flexibility, Deasy said.

The industry as a whole is waiting “for the day again when liquid crackers are once again favoured. Can these plants bridge that crevasse to wait for a better day? – that is the question we are all having to ask”.

Sponsored by the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA), the International Petrochemical Conference runs through Tuesday.

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By: Brian Ford
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