HOUSTON (ICIS)--Eastman Chemical is unlikely to restart
an idled cracker at its petrochemicals production site in
Longview, Texas, the CEO of the US-based chemicals firm
said in an update on Friday.
"I don’t see bringing that cracker up at this point, unless
there is another party that feels they can use that excess
ethylene," Mark Costa said during Eastman’s third-quarter results call.
Costa was responding to an analyst who asked about that
cracker’s prospects and pointed out that Indorama recently
agreed to acquire an idled US Gulf
Coast cracker.
Costa added that Eastman was continuing to explore options
for its excess ethylene capacity at Longview.
However, the process, which Eastman began in 2013 "got
disrupted by Westlake" Chemical, he said with reference to a
dispute between Eastman and Westlake over a
common-carrier ethylene pipeline out of Longview to Mont
Belvieu, Texas.
The company said previously that the
dispute needed to be resolved so that a third party
interested in Eastman’s excess ethylene capacities at
Longview can move it off site. Eastman has three operating
crackers and one idled at Longview.
