Repairs to damage caused last month near Energy Transfer Partners LP‘s King Ranch Gas Plant have been completed, Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) said in a Monday customer notice. “Kinder Morgan is now accepting nominations to all previously affected receipt points and delivery points on its systemwith the exception of the King Ranch Gas Plant receipt. We have been advised by Energy Transfer that the receipt from the King Ranch Plant is not expected to be placed back into service until Aug. 10-15.” Shippers should submit their nominations as usual, KMI said. Last month, KMI pipeline facilities at the plant were damaged by fire. The incident affected multiple KMI-operated pipelines and certain customer receipt and delivery points on Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline, Tejas Pipeline, Border Pipeline and Monterrey Pipeline, as well as assets owned and/or operated by outside parties (see Daily GPI, July 20; July 19).

LyondellBasell has made the final investment decision to build a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast. HDPE is used in numerous applications such as pipe, bottles, containers, toys, film, healthcare articles, plastic fuel tanks and industrial packaging. Products produced at the plant will serve markets around the globe, the company said. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons). Start-up is planned for 2019. “We believe that the combination of our latest polyolefins technology and new ethylene capacity from low-cost debottlenecks will provide a good return on investment, said CEO Bob Patel. “Additionally, this project enhances our ethylene integration strategy, allowing us to capture value across the ethylene value chain.” Recently, the company completed work on ethylene expansion projects at its La Porte and Channelview sites in Texas. A third ethylene expansion project is under way in Corpus Christi, TX. Additionally, development of a world-scale propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant at the company’s Channelview site is progressing (see Daily GPI, Nov. 23, 2015; Aug. 26, 2014). LyondellBasell currently produces 7.8 billion pounds (3.5 million metric tons) of HDPE annually, including capacity of its joint venture facilities.