Thailand’s PTTGC plans ethane cracker complex in US – EVP

Interview article by Nurluqman Suratman

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Thailand-based producer PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is planning to build a joint venture 1m tonne/year ethane cracker complex in the US that is expected to come on stream in 2021, a senior company executive said over the weekend.

“Ethylene and downstream polymers made at the petrochemical complex would replace US imports of such commodities,” Patipan Sukorndhaman, executive vice president for finance and accounting at PTTGC, told ICIS.

The complex would be expected to produce 1m tonnes/year of ethylene; as well as 700,000 tonnes/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE); 500,000 tonnes/year monoethylene glycol (MEG); and 100,000 tonnes/year of ethylene oxide (EO), according to Sukorndhaman.

PTTGC is teaming up with Japanese trading firm Marubeni for the project, which may be built at the Belmont County of Ohio, according to the Governor’s office of the state.

The Thai petrochemical firm, however, has not confirmed the joint venture with the Japanese company.

PTTGC’s board of directors had agreed to move forward in conducting the feasibility study of the project that is expected to take around a year to be completed, Sukorndhaman said.

“After site selection and completion of a feasibility study, the company will spend another year working out the project details. We expected the complex will go on stream in 2021,” Sukorndhaman said.

The new complex will use shale gas from the Marcellus formation, and the facility will be near off-taker facilities that is aimed at boosting the project’s logistical efficiency, he said.

“We aim to be located at the centre of [an] ethane network,” Sukorndhaman said.

PTTGC is the flagship petrochemical company of Thailand’s oil and gas giant PTT.

Additional reporting by Joseph Chang

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