Published on June 22, 2017
Chevron Phillips Chemical Company announced the two polyethylene units of its $6 billion petrochemical investment on the U.S. Gulf Coast successfully achieved the major milestone of mechanical completion.
The PE units are now undergoing a series of rigorous commissioning activities, system checks and final certifications to ensure a safe and reliable start-up, and consistent, high-quality production. Once operational, each PE unit will produce at least 500,000 metric tons of product annually.
These new units allow to utilize the abundant natural gas liquid feedstocks provided by the development of shale resources in the United States to meet the growing demand for polyethylene. Ethylene feedstock for the new units will be supplied via the company’s ethylene pipeline and storage system that was also expanded as part of this project. Along with the PE units, the company purchased nearly 3,000 rail cars and constructed a state-of-the-art rail facility with the capacity to store 1,500 rail cars to ship PE pellets to customers around the world.
