US BASF/Atofina plans to restart TX cracker in mid-August

24 July 2009 22:41  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US BASF/Atofina said on Friday it plans to restart its Port Arthur cracker in Texas in three weeks.

The unit was taken off line on 12 July due to a rupture in a steam line.

“We have completed an assessment of the damages and are making the necessary repairs. We anticipate a restart in mid-August,” a BASF spokesperson said.

BASF/Atofina has 936,000 tonnes/year of ethylene capacity at the site.

The outage at the cracker triggered a shutdown at a butadiene (BD) unit BASF/Atofina runs in Port Arthur under a partnership with Shell.

That unit has 410,000 tonnes/year of BD capacity.

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By: William Lemos
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