MOSCOW (MRC) -- MEGlobal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Equate Petrochemical Co., plans to construct a new world-scale monoethylene glycol (MEG) manufacturing facility at Dow’s Oyster Creek site in Freeport, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The new Oyster Creek MEG facility will be owned by MEGlobal and is the company’s first manufacturing unit in the US. The new MEGlobal plant will create 1,400 construction jobs at the project’s peak, and the company will employ approximately 50 new workers when it goes on stream in mid-2019.
"The Oyster Creek site provides MEGlobal with greater flexibility to satisfy our customers’ needs for consistent and reliable delivery of ethylene glycol products, especially in the growing US and Asian markets," said Ramesh Ramachandran, president of MEGlobal International FZE.
Additionally, the new site will benefit through a long-term ethylene supply agreement with Dow from its new ethylene cracker.
"Establishing MEG production in the US Gulf Coast is an important investment for us as it greatly enhances our global footprint and is directly aligned to our growth strategy to maximize value as a leading ethylene glycol producer and supplier," said Mohammad Husain, president and CEO of Equate Petrochemical Co., an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC), Dow Chemical, Boubyan Petrochemical Co. (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Co. (QPIC).
"Additionally, ethylene producer economics through a long-term supply agreement with Dow provide a unique competitiveness for the production plant," he added.
"The MEGlobal investment in the US Gulf Coast fits the diversification and growth strategy of PIC," said Mohammed Abdullatif Al-Farhoud, CEO of PIC. "We continue to look for opportunities in the petrochemical area across the globe to expand our footprint and diversify our portfolio. We are very pleased that our US Gulf Coast investment strategy is moving towards implementation."
MEG is used in a number of market applications, including polyester fibers, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and packaging, antifreeze and coolants, paints, resins, deicing fluids, heat transfer fluids and construction materials.
As MRC wrote before, global MEG production is likely cross 28.74 mln tons by 2017. In 2011, the world production of MEG grew by over 1 mln tons, crossing the 20.65 mln ton mark, as per Merchant Research & Consulting.
Established in 1995, Equate Petrochemical Company is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Commencing production in 1997, Equate is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.
MRC