MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lyondell Basell Industries, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, restarted the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery on Thursday night, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.
The 147,000 bpd Unit 537 CDU was shut on Jan. 15 because of clogging of the desalter section of the unit, the sources said.
As MRC wrote previously, LyondellBasell shut down its cracker in La Porte (Texas, USA) on 19 September, 2019, because of the flooding, caused by the tropical storm Imelda. According to the company's statement, this plant, which can produce 1,150,000 tonnes of ethylene per year, was shut last Wednesday when water entered a building containing electrical components and damaged critical process control equipment.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC