MOSCOW (MRC) -- TPC Group (Houston, Texas) says its Port Neches, Texas, terminal is receiving butadiene and delivering it to major area customers, said Chemweek.
The terminal is also receiving rail and marine deliveries of crude C4s. The developments complete the second phase of a three-phase startup of the terminal, which was significantly damaged by a November 2019 explosion and fire that destroyed much of the Port Neches facility’s crude-C4 processing capability. TPC also says it has signed a C4-processing agreement with a third-party toll processor.
TPC has estimated that reconstruction of the production assets will take up to five years. “We are pleased with the progress we continue to make on reestablishing butadiene, crude C4, and raffinate terminalling capabilities at the Port Neches site,” says Ed Dineen, TPC Group president and CEO.
TPC says it will use its logistic and storage facilities as well as commercial agreements for feedstock and product sales to supply crude C4s for processing to the tolling firm, which will return finished butadiene and raffinate products to TPC Group for distribution.
“This agreement provides us access to significant capabilities to consume our committed crude C4 volumes as well as meet the requirements of our long-term butadiene product sales agreements,” says Charlie Graham, senior vice president/commercial at TPC.
As per MRC, TPC stopped producing BD and other products at its Port Neches, Texas, site in November 2019 following a fire. There are currently no known plans to rebuild the production lines, and the site is being used as a logistics and storage hub. TPC had CC4 offtake agreements in place, and the new agreement with BTP will allow the company to consume those volumes and meet long-term finished product sales agreements, the company said in the release. BTP's nameplate BD capacity is 410,000 tonnes/year.
Butadiene is the main feedstock for the production of ABS.
According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, last year ABS imports to Russia increased by 4% compared to 2019 and amounted to 35 thousand tons against 33.7 thousand tons. The share of South Korean supplies amounted to 62% (21.6 thousand tons) against 58% (19.7 thousand tons) in January-December 2019.
MRC