Louisiana plant outages create premium on Choctaw-traded ethylene
Michael Sims
25-Sep-2020
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Louisiana-based ethylene trading systems are taking a price premium to Texas-based systems due in large part to the concentration of cracker outages caused by Hurricane Laura.
For months, Louisiana hubs traded at a discount to Texas hubs due to lower demand in the region.
US Ethylene Spot Prices, by Trading Hub
Outages caused by and unrelated to the storm have removed around 20% US ethylene capacity, most of which is in Louisiana.
| Company | Location | Ethylene Capacity (tonnes/year) |
| NOVA Chemicals | Geismar, Louisiana | 885,000 |
| LACC | Lake Charles, Louisiana | 1.00m |
| Sasol | Lake Charles, Louisiana | 1.96m |
| Dow | Orange, Texas | 700,000 |
| Westlake Chemical | Lake Charles, Louisiana | 1.42m |
| Indorama | Westlake, Louisiana | 440,000 |
| Formosa Plastics Corp USA | Point Comfort, Texas | 680,000 |
| BASF Total | Port Arthur, Texas | 1.18m |
* According to market sources; may not be confirmed by company
Most of the crackers brought offline by Hurricane Laura are expected to restart in October.
Ethylene is a key petrochemical feedstock, used to make polyethylene (PE), ethylene glycol (EG) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) among other products.
Major US ethylene producers include Chevron Phillips Chemical, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, INEOS Olefins & Polymers, LyondellBasell and Shell Chemical.
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