Braskem-Idesa launches its ethane import terminal in Mexico

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Braskem-Idesa (BI) officially launched the Terminal Quimica Puerto Mexico (TQPM) on Wednesday, according to a notice from the company.

After many years in the making, and at some points, serious doubts about the companies involved managing to put together the necessary capital expenditure (capex) for the terminal, in March ICIS could visit the almost-finished facilities. Braskem Idesa’s executives were relieved to finally see the long-running construction almost finished.

Up to now, Braskem Idesa has been importing ethane by ship, a system called Fast Track. Before and during that, Braskem also depended on Mexico’s state-owned energy major Pemex for supply of ethane.

However, beleaguered Pemex, after years of falling output, rising debts, and mismanagement, did not follow the agreement on several occasions and its ethane supply would fall short of what it had been agreed, leading to Braskem Idesa not having the feedstock needed to produce PE.

Sources close to the situation reported to ICIS last year that Pemex only got serious about the ethane supply when threatened with being taken to arbitrage international court – because it is state-owned, that would have been the necessary course of action.

As the ribbon was cut on Wednesday, most executives present could now focus on the future – undoubtedly more promising having its own terminal to import the feedstocks needed.

Braskem Idesa holds a 50% stake in the terminal with Advario, the Netherlands-based engineering services provider.

The terminal will allow BI to import 80,000 barrels/day, enabling the company to operate at 100% of its capacity at its integrated polyethylene (PE) Ethylene XXI complex in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico.

The Braskem Idesa cracker in Coatzacoalcos has 1.05m tonnes/year of ethylene capacity and downstream capacities of 750,000 tonnes/year of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and 300,000 tonnes/year of low-density polyethylene (LDPE).

In an interview with ICIS in March, the CEO at TQPM, Cleantho de Paiva, said the terminal would benefit Mexican petrochemicals at large, not just Braskem Idesa, by allowing the feedstocks it was consuming up to now to be released to other producers.

“This project has a very important impact on the development of the national petrochemical industry, because it’s precisely to complement access to raw materials that we lack today. With a capacity to import up to 80,000 barrels per day of ethane, this will significantly exceed the 63,000 barrels Braskem Idesa currently requires for its operations,” said Cleantho de Paiva.

“The issue of the lack of ethane in the country is structural. Since the US is the largest producer and exporter of petrochemical ethane, building this terminal gives us access to import sufficient raw material.”

“When the terminal comes into operation, Pemex, which currently has an obligation to supply a certain amount to Braskem Idesa, will no longer have it and will be able to direct this raw material to its own petrochemical complexes and resume its operating capacity,” he added.

Braskem Idesa is a joint venture made up of Braskem (75%) and Mexican chemical producer Grupo Idesa (25%).

PE is the most widely used plastic in the world, primarily found in packaging including plastic bags, plastic films and geomembranes.

Article thumbnail: The terminal as seen in March
Source: ICIS

Additional reporting by Johnathan Lopez