MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar), a joint venture of France's Total and Austria's Borealis, plans to receive commercial production at its new 1 million mt/year cracker in Texas in the 3rd quarter of 202q, reported S&P Global.
As of 11 June, the new cracker was progressing with its lengthy startup after construction was completed in the first quarter of 2021, according to a flaring notice on a community hotline and sources familiar with company operations.
The Baystar cracker in Port Arthur reported flaring late June 10 to the Southeast Texas Alerting Network, a community hotline intended to alert nearby residents of routing flaring, upsets and other issues affecting petrochemical plants and refineries.
"Operations require flaring," the notice said. Flaring, or burning of excess gases, is routine during plant startups.
The cracker will supply Total and Borealis' joint-venture 400,000 mt/year polyethylene (PE) plant near the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel, and an adjacent 625,000 mt/year PE unit under construction with startup expected in Q1 2022.
The Baystar joint venture, which originally included Canada's NOVA Chemicals, broke ground on the new cracker in 2018, and construction began on the new PE unit in 2019.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar) was created as a joint venture in 2018 between three established petrochemical industry leaders, Total S.A. (Total), Borealis Holdings LLC and NOVA Chemicals. Borealis bought NOVA's interest in the joint venture in 2020.
MRC