Cracker

A commercial real estate developer is clearing a 100-acre site in western Pennsylvania for a roughly $9 million project with the help of a $7 million loan from a regional development fund. Castlebrook Development Groupis working to get an industrial park ready in anticipation of the manufacturing opportunities that are expected to be created by Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC’s ethane cracker, scheduled to come online in the early 2020s. The cracker is under construction in Beaver County, 15 miles south of the Castlebrook site. The Power of 32 Site Development Fund, backed by local banks, nonprofits and private companies, made the loan for Castlebrook.

Two polyethylene (PE) units at Old Ocean east of Houston in Brazoria County have begun production, with each able produce up to 500,000 metric tons/year to service ever-increasing petrochemical demand, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC said Tuesday.

PTT Global Chemical pcl (PTTGC) has signed purchase option agreements with eight landowners near the proposed site of its multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Ohio, giving the company the ability to buy the properties if it were to move forward with the facility.

Thailand’s state-owned petrochemical and refining company, PTT Global Chemical pcl (PTTGC), has taken another step toward building its proposed multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Belmont County, OH, exercising its purchase option for a 167-acre site there.

Two polyethylene (PE) units, a key part of a $6 billion petrochemical expansion on the Texas Gulf Coast, have achieved mechanical completion, considered a major milestone, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPChem) said Monday.

Following months of debate, leaders of a rural Coastal Bend community near Corpus Christi, TX, are making it clear they would welcome the world’s largest ethane steam cracker, a $9 billion-plus project proposed by ExxonMobil Corp. and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC).

France’s Total is planning a joint venture with Borealis and Nova Chemicals to construct a $1.7 billion ethane steam cracker and a new polyethylene unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Pennsylvania has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to snare between $2.7 billion and $3.7 billion in natural gas liquid (NGL) investment, sparking a “manufacturing renaissance” that includes more ethane cracking plants, petrochemical and plastics facilities, Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday.

Ingleside Ethylene LLC, a 50/50 joint venture of Occidental Chemical Corp. (OxyChem), and Mexichem, S.A.B. de C.V. said its new its ethylene cracker at OxyChem’s Ingleside, TX, complex has begun operations on schedule and on budget.