MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total Petrochemicals & Refining told "PetroChemical News" (PCN) the company is "in discussion with potential partners" for a new ethane cracker to be built in Port Arthur, Texas, and it is "studying the possibility of a long-term strategic partnership" for its Port Arthur platform, which includes a refinery, as per GV.
Total recently announced the selection of Port Arthur as the site for construction of a new 1-million-t/y ethane cracker that would cover its ethylene needs for derivatives in the U.S.
In addition to Total’s wholly-owned refinery, identified as a 174,000-b/d facility on the company’s website, the Port Arthur site also houses a 1-million-t/y ethane cracker that is operated as a joint venture of Total (40%) and BASF (60%). Total earlier stressed the new ethane cracker would not be developed with BASF.
Establishing a strategic partnership for the Port Arthur complex "would ensure the ongoing development of this high quality asset that has benefited from recent substantial investments," Total explained.
As MRC informed previously, Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, permanently shut down its high density polyethylene (HDPE) line in late 2014 owing to weak margins which had arisen on account of cheap imports in the region. Located at Antwerp in Belgium, the line had a production capacity of 70,000 mt/year.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC