Grangemouth - centre of BP Chemicals' expansion plans
15 Jan 2000
BP Chemicals is investing £500million in the UK as part of its medium-term European investment programme.
Grangemouth and Hull emerge as key sites for BP's future development with their direct access to the Forties pipeline and North Sea methane.
New plants and production increases will be made in both Grangemouth and Hull. However, the existing ethylene pipeline from Grangemouth will bypass Teesside - where BPholds a minority stake in ICI's cracker (see page 7) - for new plants in Hull.
The Government has recently approved construction of a combined heat and power plant for the Grangemouth site which BP claims was a deciding factor in its expansion plan. This plant, to be built by IVO and Mitsubishi, will generate 130MW of power for the site.
BP will expand ethanol production at Grangemouth to 110 000tpa. Also in Grangemouth, the KG cracker is to be expanded and, alongside the neighbouring G4 cracker, will increase ethylene capacity to over 1million tpa.
BP is already building two plants at Grangemouth. A 30 000tpa gas phase polyethylene plant will be finished in 2000 and a 250 000tpa polypropylene jv with Elf-Atochem will be completed in 1999.
The redirected ethylene pipeline from Grangemouth to Hull, combined with increased acetic acid production in Hull to 750 000tpa, will produce vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and ethyl acetate (ETAC). Kvaerner is building the 220 000tpa ETAC site at Hull for completion in 2001 using BP's `direct addition' method which does not require raw ethanol as a product. The 250 000tpa VAM plant will be finished in 2000 using BP's technology that BP claims will double normal reactor capacity.
However, BP's 115 000tpa VAM plant in Baglan Bay will be closed when Hull's comes on stream and the 150 000tpa ethanol plant will be shut once Grangemouth ethanol becomes profitable. As a result 150 jobs will be lost in Baglan Bay but 225 will be created in Grangemouth and Hull.
* BP shareholders have shown their approval of the BP Amoco merger with a 99.82per cent majority voting in favour. BP chairman Peter Sutherland described it as a `massive endorsement of the merger.'
