Pipeline and plant plans
6 Oct 2003
Saudi petrochemicals giant Sabic, which bought DSM Petrochemicals last summer, is among the prospective partners for a propylene pipeline grid for Northern Europe.
The project, which would cost 180million Euros, also includes Shell, BASF, BP and Sasol. Meanwhile, Sabic EuroPetrochemicals has revived DSM's plans for investments in feedstocks and polyolefins.
The pipeline would mirror the existing ethylene pipeline grid, and will be built in two stages. The first, linking producers around Gelsenkirchen in Germany, will be operational in mid-2005; stage two, which carries on connection through Geleen in the Netherlands and Wesseling in Germany up to Rotterdam, will run from the end of the following year.
The eight propylene and polypropylene producing shareholders have already secured grants totalling 46million Euros from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and are awaiting clearance for the grants from the European Union.
The ethylene pipeline has given producers linked to it a substantial competitive edge, with plants on the grid operating at rates two to three per cent higher than the rest of Europe. The companies hope that the new grid will produce a similar boost.
This investment is dwarfed by Sabic EuroPetrochemicals' plans, however. If approved, these will see the firm sinking 500million Euros into a major cracker extension at Geleen, adding 550,000 tpa of ethylene capacity to the existing 1.25million tpa. This could be accompanied by an LDPE unit at Geleen and a PP plant at Geleen or Gelsenkirchen. All the plants would be world-scale, says Sabic EuroPetrochemicals' chief executive Frans Noteborn.
Noteborn is waiting for the company's main board to approve the project, and expects a decision by the end of the year. If approved, the cracker will come on-stream in 2007.
