MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC; Bangkok, Thailand) says that its planned 1.5-million metric tons/year steam cracker project at Belmont County, Ohio, remains the top priority for its affiliate PTTGC America (PTTGCA), according to Chemweek.
The company says that the project has not at any point been put on hold. PTTGCA says that it looks forward to making announcements of the project’s progression in the weeks and months ahead.
PTTGC earlier in September this year signed an ethane supply agreement with Range Resources Corp. (Forth Worth, Texas). Range will supply 15,000 b/d of ethane to a facility that includes a cracker with ethane feed capacity of 100,000 b/d and multiple facilities for creating ethylene derivative products.
The downstream configuration has yet to be decided, especially in view of Daelim Chemical USA’s (DCA) withdrawal from the project. PTTGC and DCA were equal partners in the project. PTTGC is in the process of seeking a new partner while working toward a final investment decision. This is likely to delay the completion of the project to 2027–28.
Original plans revolved around different configurations, including for the entire ethylene output being used to make the equivalent volume of high-density and linear low-density polyethylene, or some of the ethylene being used to make ethylene glycol. Most of the output would be sold on the US market.
As MRC wrote before, in June, PTTGCA said it delayed making a final investment decision to build the ethane cracker in US, which analysts estimate will cost USD5.7 billion, from the first half of 2020 to the first half of 2021 due to the coronavirus.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
ccording to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
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