Eastman unlikely to restart idled Texas cracker – CEO

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.