Tesoro announces xylene extraction project for US west coast

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Tesoro announced plans on Monday for a $400m petrochemical feedstock project in its US West Coast refining system, which will extract xylene from its Anacortes refinery in Washington. 

In a press release issued on Monday, the San Antonio, Texas-based refining company said it intends to gather intermediate feedstock, primarily reformate, for xylene extraction and will be designed to recover up to 15,000 bbl/day of mixed xylene (MX).

The MX will mainly be exported to Asia for downstream consumption in polyester fibers, films for clothing, food packaging and beverage containers.

Tesoro said the global xylene market is growing about 5% to 7% annually, primarily driven by demand in Asia. 

“This attractive diversification of Tesoro’s product mix supports our goals of enhancing our gross margin and investing in high return capital projects,” said Greg Goff, Tesoro’s president and chief executive. 

Startup of the new facilities is expected to be in 2017, subject to permitting and the approval process.  A final investment decision is expected by year-end 2014, the company said.